


All That I Have Met

by LateStarter58



Series: The Companions [2]
Category: Henry V - Shakespeare, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, F/M, Robot Feels, Robot/Human Relationships, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 19:58:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16771852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LateStarter58/pseuds/LateStarter58
Summary: Centuries have passed since the time of Chantal Barton (The Customer is Always Right), and the planet has become uninhabitable. All that is left of the human race lives off-world, but some scouts return from time to time, to scavenge for tech and materials. On one such trip, Hannah from Orbital Base 4 stumbles across a strange collection of objects at a promising-looking site. When she takes them back with her to the all-female colony, nothing is ever going to be the same...





	All That I Have Met

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story because I wondered what might happen if someone found an abandoned Companion. Thinking about that made me consider what kind of world there might be if a few more hundred years had passed, and so the universe of OB4 was born. It has taken on a life of its own...

_“I am part of all that I have met.” **John Milton**_

# Chapter One

The soft thrum of the docking engines soothed Hannah’s irritation a little, and she settled back into the seat, her eyes closed. Her hands were still gripping the arms rather too hard, however. She hated setting off in a bad mood: it dulled her instincts. Surely her boss Amanda knew that, but still she had to give her that thinly disguised warning/pep-talk just before take-off…

“Clear of the structure.”

“Thanks Cal.” Hannah settled a little deeper into the seat and let the automated systems take her down towards the atmosphere. Her gaze settled on the tall structures and round domes of the colony as it began to shrink from view. There were nearly five thousand women in there, and while they weren’t exactly relying on her, the overall wellbeing of the colony did depend on every member doing her job to the best of her ability. All of them, from their elected leader to the lowliest kitchen-hand had a place in the machine that needed to function to sustain them all.

She pictured them, each occupying her own particular niche, fulfilling her role to keep Orbital 4 turning. Hannah didn’t know everyone by name, of course, but she recognised most of the faces. There were the kitchen staff and cleaning crews; the midwives and nursery nurses who cared for mothers and babies; teachers and trainers; archivists and librarians; engineers and techs; specialists and administrators. 

She had her own particular circle of colleagues and friends, naturally. Her roommate, Cate, who worked in Tech Research as well, although her job was more about what happened to the objects and information _after_ collection, and making sure the colony made the best possible profit. Amanda, their immediate superior was a dear friend and an excellent manager who knew everything there was to be known about everyone else. Janet, a childhood pal, was Head of Science and ruled the lowest floor of the station, full of labs and technicians. She was calm and focused, and likely to surprise you with the funniest remark. Thanks to Cate, Hannah had just begun to get to know Julie, who was Head Archivist, too; she was clever and interested in everything, with a romantic streak a mile wide. And of course there was Mary, who ran Security with a sense of humour that almost made you want to start trouble just to see her in action.

Just before the thrusters turned her ship in preparation for the descent, Hannah saw the windows of the Med Centre glinting on the side of the station. She wanted to wave: over the years she had come to know Miriam, the Medical Director, and her trusted staff pretty well. There was Maggie the fun-loving nurse and midwife, and kind and sensitive Gloria, who doubled as both a doctor and the colony’s only dental surgeon. And just before she lost sight of it, there on the very top floor of the colony, was the large window of the Commander’s office. Charlotte, the PA, would be up there, keeping things running smoothly and subtly guiding her boss when needed. She was an intelligent and sweet person who loved to hear about ancient civilisations and times gone by. Commander Claire was another old acquaintance; not quite a friend, but damn close. One advantage of the brave new world they lived in was that colonies like this one were, by and large, meritocracies. All of them had been chosen before birth to be the best, the most suited to their role, to fit well in their professions. And their peers selected those who held political power for public office and leadership. So if Claire did have to move Hannah on to another job, it would be done for the best reasons.

The ship finished turning and steadied at the optimum angle to meet the Earth’s atmosphere. She had made this journey so many times she hardly thought about the risks anymore. She felt safe, cocooned in her small ship, protected from the heat of atmospheric entry and the poisonous air on the surface. She tried hard to clear her mind, to make it as calm as possible in preparation for her planet-side activities, but snatches of the conversation kept floating up…

_“I hate to say it, but it’s been almost a year since you found anything half-decent, Han…”_

_“I know, but there isn’t that much left nowadays. Most of the good stuff has already been taken.”_

_“Surely though, with your skills and training, there have to be a few pockets-”_

_“I just don’t know! I’m doing my best! This place I’ve found, for this trip, it might-“_

_“It had better, Hannah…” Her boss had taken a deep breath before continuing, “…because Claire is talking about withdrawing your funding.” Her eyes were sad._

_“Oh fucking great. Thanks, Amanda. Thanks a bunch.”_

Hannah felt fury at the injustice of it, but she also understood the reasoning: the colony would not survive without something to trade. They couldn’t grow much, and they were just a little too small to be able to provide enough genetic diversity or skills to help when it came to competing with Mars Alpha or Lunar Prime. And she had been guilty of allowing her personal preference to take over once she hit the surface, on occasions anyway. She was fascinated by archaeology, and so far, the Earth was the only source material she had.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t employed as an archaeologist. And they couldn’t afford to waste fuel on joy rides. She tried to control her frustration and before she knew it, in just under an hour the soft electronic voice of the ship’s systems was whispering in her ear. “Dr Hannah, we have arrived.”

“Thanks Cal. Let’s circle for a bit, I want to get a feel for the area.”

Hannah looked out of the window to her left while the flight computer steered the ship in a wide arc around the lake below. The water seemed very dark – it had to be deep – and the step mountainsides were bare of vegetation, like most of the planet. Along the beaches on all sides, in scattered piles of what looked like discarded children’s construction toys, were the remains of buildings. This was what had made Hannah choose this site: the houses looked expensive, so there was likely to be the remains of high-end technology to be found in the ruins. This high up it would probably have avoided the inundations and be ripe for picking – if she could get in and out safely, that is.

“Find a suitable landing site, would you, Cal? I’ll just get kitted up.”

Hannah had read some old books and watched a few old broadcasts about what archaeology was like in the old days: it was all dirt and dust and digging. Things had changed a bit since the last global uprising. Just about every nasty weapon you could think of had been set off as the poor attempted to overthrow the rule of the rich. In the process the planet had been poisoned, the plants destroyed, the remaining clean water contaminated and who had won? The rich, of course. Only they had the resources to leave.

The gravity wave bombs (the ones that had been _supposedly_ dismantled) had caused widespread earthquakes and flooding, and were the last straw for the very richest. Most of them left for the off-world colonies that had been just about to start taking settlers. Not everyone made it, of course. Even the rich aren’t immune to everything. And that was where she came in. Archaeology was a useful skill if you are searching for abandoned, forgotten technology. Earth in the aftermath of the wars was full of it. Less now, after 200 years of decay and looting by generations of colonists, but there were still some nuggets to be panned out of the ruins.

Hannah checked her suit before she put it on: it was such a palaver to get into it that she did not want to find a leak _after_ she had put it on. All good, so she stepped into the airtight, gas-proof, acid-resistant and self-heating/cooling ensemble. Not flattering, but who would see her? And judging from the old video footage, fashion hadn’t been high up the agenda for the archaeologists of times gone by either… Instead of a trowel or a shovel, Hannah had a scanner to check for electronic frequencies, a sealable case for small items and a powerful tractor to transport large objects back to the ship for loading in the quarantinable hold.

All precautions had to be taken, even after all this time. Disease from the biological weapons that were unleashed (those were also _officially_ decommissioned and yet miraculously still existing) was still a real risk, especially as all remaining humans lived in sealed, limited communities. Life remained a fragile thing, and the human race’s continued existence was still on a knife-edge. The gene pool was limited, even with the amount of exchange that went on between the various colonies. And reproduction was totally reliant on science, on biologists and doctors. Natural methods were no longer possible for one very important reason: humanity had almost managed to wipe itself out, by the clever, if unintentional, invention of a virus that had killed all the men on the planet. And unfortunately, that one had spread before anyone managed to get to the Moon or Mars. The entire race’s DNA was damaged. Even now, no male foetuses would survive pregnancy.

Hannah lifted up the helmet and put it on, twisting it until it locked in place. She hated wearing the suit; she wasn’t claustrophobic, but not far off, and her entire body seemed to start itching the minute she closed the final seal.

“Just heading out onto the surface, Amanda.”

“OK. Good luck, love.”

“Luck doesn’t come into it.”

Her superior laughed politely; it was their habitual exchange. She was right, but only up to a point. Finding what they needed was a case of good judgement mixed with not a little good fortune. Hannah was pretty sure she had happened on a likely spot here, but the stuff needed to have survived, and be reachable. She waited impatiently for the airlock to equalise. Her stomach was churning: there was the usual excitement of new things to see, a new place to discover. But coupled with it this time was the pressure of expectation and the knowledge that this could be make or break for her career. If she didn’t find anything worth having this time, by next week she could be working in the hydroponic hall or stirring a big vat of beans in the kitchens. She stood, humming tunelessly, itching to get going as the door began to open. Bright sunshine dazzled her as she took a deep breath and then stepped out onto the metal ladder.

Cal had put them down on the stony beach at one end of the roughly oval lake. The spot gave a good overview of the entire area. Ahead, about 500 metres from her she could see the remains of a wooden bridge. It appeared to have collapsed, although whether due to seismic activity or natural decay she couldn’t tell. To her left, scattered along one shore of the lake were the ruins of ten or so dwellings. It seemed they had been built on stilts, as most had capsized to one side or the other. Some had their decks intact, even though the main building had crumbled into a heap of rubble behind. The houses hadn’t been large, but they looked as if they had been well constructed and of the best materials. They had to contain something decent.

“Seal the lock, Cal.”

“Yes, Dr Hannah.”

She set off down the steps and along the shore towards the remains. As she walked, she glanced up at the mountainside across the water to her right. It was steep and bare, and mostly black. More or less all the vegetation on Earth had been killed by a succession of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. What survived being poisoned was finished off by a ten-year winter. Beneath her feet she saw signs of some algae and lichens – those almost indestructible forms of life – but nothing more advanced. There was hope that one day, people might be able to return and breathe real air, but as to whether they would have much to eat or drink, well that was another question.

After five minutes of toiling in her uncomfortable and bulky protective clothing, Hannah was standing beside the first house. At least it had been a house once upon a time. Now it was just a pile of large slabs heaped over a muddle of crushed plastic and composite. One of its stilts was still standing, but the other had fallen back. Now she was close Hannah could see that all the houses had the same basic design. The backs were built up against the slope of the mountain on that side, with the fronts raised up on these columns. A platform with steps down to the lakeshore seemed standard, and most appeared to have had storage areas below. These, if they were accessible, would be a good place to search.

This first home was too crushed to be any use. She couldn’t even get a probe in between the slabs to check for tech, and the scanner showed nothing beyond the chip in the door. She removed the housing with her laser knife and stowed the microcircuit in her collection case. Even if it contained no useful data, the materials could be cannibalised. Moving on to the neighbouring dwelling, she was met with more success. The earthquake had only tipped this one backwards a little – apparently the mountain on this side had subsided in places – and by clambering up the side, Hannah was able to get into the interior.

Her scanner went crazy, bleeping and flashing: there was definitely something here, and it was still operating to some degree. She followed the signal and found a damaged wall screen and was able to extract it and its data chip. She was not able to get it to work – no power – but she was certain that it would. Checking the rest of the house she found only rotted clothing, kitchen utensils of limited interest and an odd object. Checking her database, she identified it as a violin, an ancient musical instrument. She decided to take it. Someone might want to barter for it: there were some wealthy eccentrics on Mars Alpha.

Climbing back down, she paused to look along to the next ruin. As she did, she saw something that caused her heart to begin to race and her breath to catch in her throat: she could see what looked like a human body lying near the remains of the house, in what had presumably been the garden, when such things existed. Steadying herself, she managed to get to ground level on shaky legs and set off towards it, her head spinning with the possibilities.

“Cal, scan for life signs.”

“There are none, save yours, Dr Hannah.”

She shook her head. What could this be? A previous tech-scavenger? Was there unknown danger here? On full alert she continued towards the body. As she neared it, she could see it was a man, and he was lying by a stone with writing on it. His clothing was partly decayed away, but what she could see was odd, like the illustrations in her history files.

_Is this from the nineteenth century…? How very strange…_

He was on his side, one arm stretched across the space in front of the stone. He was tall and slim, with fair curls. He seemed utterly perfect, and completely intact. Hannah tried to think of an explanation: how could his clothes be going and yet he…

She knelt down and carefully turned the body onto its back. The first thing that struck her was how very beautiful his face was, but how blank. Then her eyes were drawn to the gaping hole in his chest. In one of his hands he was holding the remains of something. Looking at it, Hannah surmised it was a power unit, because from what she could see of his innards, this was a cyborg of some kind. She looked at the stone by his head, searching for answers. It had been exquisitely carved in an old-fashioned style:

_Chantal Barton. She lived, she loved._

Still puzzling over the meaning of it all, she summoned the larger transporter and had the android’s remains loaded into it while she headed into the house in search of more information.

This home had survived the upheavals of the wars even better than the last. It had only tipped a little to one side, and Hannah was able to walk around the rooms with comparative ease. She gathered a few objects as well as the screen and data chips, before she entered what had been the bedroom by the look of it. There, by the stained and tattered bedding was a pile of objects she recognised: books. Her heart leapt with joy. She had always wanted to touch a book, and here were twenty at least! They were immediately stowed away.

Finding nothing more on her scanner she made her way out when her hand-held began to vibrate and the sonic alarm sound loudly in her ears.

“There is something under the building, Dr Hannah. Three signals.”

“Thanks Cal, I sort of guessed.”

Sarcasm was wasted on the OS, but necessary for her sanity. Descending the steps from the platform she peered up below it and spotted three large containers fixed to the underside. They looked like stasis pods. Even from where she was she could see tiny green lights on each, indicating they were still operating.

_Who would go into a pod and stay here? It makes no sense at all…_

She instructed the transporter to collect all three. If there were people inside, then great, because the more diversity the better. Even if they were dead, their genes would be useful. And if they were empty then the tech was valuable. Walking towards the next house, Hannah felt light and happy. She had found more useful stuff in the last hour than she had in the last ten years. She was almost giddy with relief.

By nightfall she was back on her ship and heading for home. She couldn’t examine anything she had collected yet – it would all have to be decontaminated - but she could spend the return trip pondering that strange android. What was he? What was he doing lying there? Why had he, apparently, committed suicide?

“Cal.”

“Yes, Dr Hannah?”

“Do a database search for me please. Chantal Barton.”

By the time she was docking with the colony Hannah had more questions than ever.

# Chapter Two

The distinguished-looking, grey-haired woman stood by the large window and watched the small shuttle as it approached the docking bay. The commander’s office was the best place from which to see all the comings and goings to and from Orbital 4. Commander Claire was fond of Hannah; they had known each other a very long time and although she was the older of the two, it was only by a few years. They shared a disappointment: both had a vocation that was of limited use in the harsh reality of the present. While Hannah’s love of investigating the distant past through its remains was of marginal relevance now, Claire’s lifelong desire to study animals and nature was utterly obsolete. But there was no room for sentiment these days. She turned to psychology instead and had risen through the political structure to be elected commander.

She used her training daily. Every woman in the colony had to pull her weight, no matter what. So, reluctantly she felt that if there weren’t anything tasty in the hold of that craft, her friend would have to be… _redeployed_. She would hate to lose her source of stories, and if Hannah were to be demoted she would hardly see her anymore. She loved to hear about the places Hannah visited, and her ideas about the people who had once lived there, but being in charge meant making unpleasant decisions sometimes. She looked up as she heard her assistant come in to the room.

“What is it, Charlotte?”

The other woman cleared her throat. “There are reports of trouble on Lunar Prime, Claire. Rioting, or at least, some looting and fighting.”

The commander sighed. This had begun to happen on the larger colonies in recent times; in those where not everyone knew each other and resources weren’t evenly distributed. In such small, closed societies, unfairness was obvious and increasingly difficult to maintain without unrest. “Do we know what the issue is this time?”

Charlotte walked up to her boss and handed her a tablet to read. “Something to do with hygiene arches or perfume; the reports conflict. But definitely related to cleanliness.” The previous time it had been about a shortage of the drug that controlled menstrual flow. The commander there was rather lax on these matters. She was old, Claire knew, even older than she was, and perhaps she had forgotten how important this sort of thing is when you are younger. She smiled; she was very careful to make sure all her women were well looked after. It was a matter of pride to her that there had not been even a hint of unrest under her command. She had better ask _Lunar Lucy_ if she needed any assistance or supplies…at a price, of course.

“Oh dear. Well, maybe their commander will learn the lesson this time. Any word from Amanda? Is Hannah back already?”

“I think she just docked. Amanda says it went well. Really well.”

Amanda was hopping from one foot to the other by the airlock sequence. She could see Hannah, and had spoken to her by radio, but she needed to look her in the eye. Suddenly she felt someone standing next to her and turned to see their mutual friend Cate. She was slim and beautiful, a little darker than Amanda, but with the same optimistic type of personality. Her eyes were shining as she looked through the series of doors. Hannah’s roommate and colleague, she usually greeted her after a trip if she could.

“How was it, has she said?”

“Apparently it was good, better than good, in fact. But she won’t say exactly what she found. Except to ready the labs and the med centre.”

Cate looked round sharply. “Is she hurt? Or… _sick_?” Her voice had gone very quiet. The risks of visiting the planet’s surface were real and many.

Amanda embraced her. “No, no, she’s fine. It must be for something…or maybe _someone_ she’s found.” Cate’s eyes were like saucers.

“ _Someone? Down there_? But…”

“Let’s wait and ask her. She’s almost done deconning.”

The final airlock door hissed as it opened and Hannah stepped out to be hugged by both her friends.

“So, spill!”

‘Oh Cate, you can never wait for anything! Let me get my breath, will you?”

Her pal looked into her face carefully and could see the excitement in her eyes. “What did you find, Han? TELL ME!!!”

Hannah looked down the corridor to see a few people moving around. “Let’s go somewhere quieter,” she said.

Safely in the quarters she shared with Cate, and with a hot cup of tea in her hand she sat down and related her experience. Cate was open-mouthed and speechless; Amanda cut to the chase immediately.

“So, he was beautiful, you say. Any chance he can be fixed?”

“No idea. Maybe not… He did a great deal of damage to himself, getting the reactor out. If he did commit suicide, which _is_ how it looks, then he may have made sure we can’t reboot him.”

“Shame.” Amanda looked peeved. Cate was openly weeping.

“Oh darling, don’t upset yourself.”

“But Hannah, he killed himself. For _her_ , presumably. How romantic! So tragic-“

“Oh Cate, it’s a machine, for fuck’s sake!”

“Shut up, I can see you’re crying too. Don’t pretend.”

“Now, now, ladies. Let’s wait until I can have a proper look through the data files from her chip, and his, if Janet will allow me. Then maybe we will get a better idea of the story.”

****

That evening, once it had been decontaminated and checked for computer viruses, Hannah was given the first look at the data chip from Chantal’s mainframe. She settled at the desk in her tiny office in Tech Research, scanned the folder names quickly, settling on the one titled _Personal_ first. One file was called ‘ _The Customer is Always Right’_ and she opened it. Two hours later Amanda came into the room to find Hannah standing by the porthole. At this time of the day it gave a view of the darkened planet below.

“Well? Any luck?”

Hannah took a shuddering breath, and her superior went over and put an arm around her. “What is it?”

“I think he _did_ kill himself, Amanda. He loved her. They were designed to love her, programmed to… Oh!” She turned and looked at her boss, wide-eyed. “I must get to the med centre. I know what’s in those containers!”

The lift hummed on its way up the central column of the structure. All the elevators on the colony moved fast, but this one was not fast enough for Hannah tonight. When she reached the medical floor she ran to the emergency room. It was sealed, and she could see Miriam was in full protective gear, as was her assistant Gloria, and Maggie, the nurse-of-all-trades. She banged on the windows to no effect, so began jumping up and down to attract their attention. Eventually, after a minute of her manic bouncing, Maggie noticed the movement and spoke to Miriam. She walked over to the intercom, which only operated from inside, and pressed the button. Her soft, sweet voice came through the speaker next to the door.

“What is it, Hannah? We are about to open the first stasis pod and-“

“It’s not a stasis pod, that’s the thing.”

“What do you mean?” The doctor’s pretty face looked confused through her mask. “What is it then?”

“I’m not sure, exactly, but it’s not a human inside. It’s an android.”

Miriam took a step back in surprise. She turned slowly and looked at the shining white container on the table in the middle of the room. “You mean, like the one Janet has in her lab…?”

Hannah nodded. “Except…”

“What?” Miriam looked at her colleagues who were both staring at the container.

“I think these three will be in working order. And if that’s the case, well… Let’s just say that things are going to get _pretty interesting_ around here.”

Miriam seemed to grasp the urgency. “Maggie, get Dr Janet to come up here immediately, would you? I think this is going to be more her area than ours.”

It took an hour, first to convince the Head of Science that she was needed, and then for her to make her way from the bottom of the colony to the top, and get kitted up in full protective gear. Hannah was still as nervous and excited as before by the time the team were ready to open the box and see what – or more accurately, _who_ – was inside. The opening mechanism wasn’t immediately obvious, but once Gloria had worked it out the lid opened like a door and a ‘man’ sat up and looked around.

He was as beautiful as the android she had found by the grave, but at the same time very different. Long black hair framed a pale face with blazing, fierce eyes. He was dressed oddly, but not like the other. This one wore green and gold, a strange costume made of what looked like leather, metal and wool. His bright blue eyes scanned the room rapidly and fixed on Hannah through the glass. She felt her stomach drop, but not from fear. Rather this was the feeling she had when she pleasured herself in the dark, only multiplied a million times over.

“Fuck… _Loki_ …” she murmured, and the android smiled.

“Oh yes,” he said, his gaze never wavering from Hannah’s face.

****

While she waited to be properly introduced, Hannah paced in the hall outside the room. She had known it would be one of three, and if she was honest, she had hoped this first one would be _him_. When she had read Chantal’s story, she recognised the name. In the course of her training, Hannah had studied ancient religions and cultures so she was vaguely aware of the Norse gods, but she was aware of this particular incarnation for other reasons. On previous visits to the surface, when she had dared to try investigating larger settlements, she had been inside ruined libraries - and cinemas. She loved the idea of films. For her own amusement she had researched comic books and occasionally seen posters for movies that featured this beguiling creature. If you searched in the right places you could even find a few remaining extracts from the movies themselves – some of the servers had kept such trivia for the entertainment of the wealthy. And among such trivia, you could find the characters and the actors who played them. Chantal had been very taken by this actor called Tom Hiddleston, and she could see why.

Oh yes, an encounter with an android version of _Tom Hiddleston’s_ Loki was going to be very interesting. Nobody else knew who he was yet, and it was unlikely that more than a few had even heard of the Norse gods. As far as the women on the other side of the glass were concerned, he was just a very life-like robot. She took a deep breath to steady herself: her life was changing rapidly, and she hoped for the better.

She was beginning to get restless now. The decontamination of Loki and his clothing was taking a long time. Rather longer than necessary, Hannah thought. She recalled the look of anticipation on Nurse Maggie’s face as she had led Loki to the chamber and bristled.

_He’s mine_

_What? Where did that come from?_

Hannah turned and sat on the bench in the hall, her back to the glass. She glanced at the time readout above her: it was 4am. She had been awake and active for almost twenty-two hours. She should rest, but she had to speak to the machine, and escort it – _him_ – to Janet’s lab, at least. She heard the door alarm ding and stood up to see Loki walking towards her; Maggie was behind him, grinning. She mouthed “He’s all there” at Hannah.

“You must be Dr Hannah.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips, his eyes never leaving hers. She felt faint again.

_Must be all the blood rushing to my cunt_

The smile was back, wicked and calculating. Hannah knew what he was designed for and programmed to do. She was curious to see how quickly he would adapt to his new situation, but she felt a trickle of unease down her spine. This was a society of women; there had been no men among them for over one hundred and fifty years. They were a tight-knit, mutually supportive sisterhood. What would the introduction of three highly sexual, extremely attractive – albeit _artificial_ – men do to the equilibrium of the community?

“I am to escort you to the science floor, Loki. Our specialists would like to… _examine_ you. See what makes you tick.”

That smile again. “Will you stay with me, Hannah?”

“For some of the time, yes.” She called the lift. “But I must rest, so not for long. I will be back later this morning.”

He nodded curtly and strode into the car when the door opened. She stood next to him as it descended, trying not to steal glances. Every time she lost that fight, he was watching her closely. He looked amazingly real: the hair, the skin, and the way his chest moved as if he were breathing. Even his expression changed second by second. He did not stand passively still as one of the ambient robots on the colony would, but shifted subtly from foot to foot like a human. And of course the robots they used every day did not attempt to mimic people in any way beyond their voices and in some cases, intelligence. They were tools, pure and simple. This – _he_ – was something of a different order.

The door opened to find Dr Janet waiting, rubbing her hands with barely concealed glee. “Ah, Loki, nice to see you again.” He cocked his head questioningly. “Oh, of course… sorry, I was suited up last time, when we opened your box.” She giggled. Loki seemed to have that effect on every woman. “Please, come this way.”

She showed him into the lab opposite the lift, where a bed had been hastily set up. There was some medical monitoring equipment next to it, from the med floor, Hannah assumed, as well as all the usual scanners they used to analyse tech finds. Loki walked around the room before going to the bed, assessing his surroundings.

“I must leave you now, Loki. Dr Janet will look after you.”

He gave a breathy laugh. “I think you mean she will look _into me,_ Hannah.”

She smiled politely and headed off, her legs wobbling.

_Tiredness, that’s it_

She pressed the button for the lift and when the door closed behind her she leaned against the wall and slid down, ending up in a heap on the floor.

_Dear god, is this what men did to women? No wonder we were oppressed_

****

After a few hours’ sleep with not a few sweaty dreams, Hannah woke and dressed. She stood and examined herself in the mirror. She was no longer young: middle-aged, they used to call it in the old world, but her green eyes sparkled with intelligence and wit, and she had a disarming smile. With long, silky, strawberry blonde hair and a fair complexion, she had luscious curves, mainly thanks to her preference for reading over exercise. Which clearly made her wiser than her friends, who were around a decade younger. Loki seemed to like her well enough, she thought. Presumably the fact that she was the first woman he saw on being reactivated meant he had ‘imprinted’ on her. She looked herself in the eye; she was going to have to go and talk to Claire. She needed to know exactly what these things were, Loki and the other two ‘men’.

But Loki first. _Yes, that first, confession later_. Hannah ate a hasty breakfast and took the lift back down to the bottom floor, her heart pounding in her chest.

When she arrived at Janet’s lab she could see that Loki was laying on the bed, hands clasped on his stomach, eyes closed. He had removed the outer garments he had been wearing last night, and was in just a thin tunic and loose trousers. Janet was sitting at her desk with her back to him, but someone was standing by his side, apparently writing on a tablet. When the woman turned, Hannah recognised her as Julie, the Head Archivist. She smiled broadly.

“Loki has been telling me about his origins, Dr Hannah. Fascinating, fascinating…” The small, dark and intense woman couldn’t hide her excitement: so much new material to catalogue, and plenty of research to be done.

“Good morning, Hannah. I trust you are rested now.” Loki’s face was neutral, but there was no mistaking his meaning. His eyes said it all.

“Yes, I am, thank you.” Trying to compose herself, Hannah remembered her plan for the day. “So, Janet. Is it OK if I take Loki for a tour of the colony?”

The Head of Science turned her chair and looked at them. She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see why not. I have plenty to work on for the moment. We have decided to hold off reactivating the oth- …Loki’s, er… _colleagues_ until we know more. I want to have a proper look at… What did you say his name was?” She was tilting her head in the direction of a table at the other end of the room. It had a sheet over it, but Hannah could make out the vague shape of a body beneath the white fabric.

“William.” She saw Loki’s jaw tighten at the mention of the name. Was it jealousy? Chantal had, after all, chosen her first Companion to keep over all the others, delightful though she had found them all, each in his own way. And she mentioned in her account that they had shown signs of emotions, including jealousy…

_What a fortunate woman_

“Let’s go then.” She walked towards the door. He followed, smiling serenely. Once they were in the lift and the door had closed, Hannah turned to him to find he was very close. She coughed. “I thought we might just take a tour of my quarters… to begin with.”

His voice was soft and deeper than before as his hand came up and caressed her arm gently. “I think that sounds like an excellent idea.”

The front door of the small but comfortable accommodation she shared with Cate was only a few steps away from the lift. Hannah hurried them inside, not wanting to be seen. No doubt word was already out and there was likely to be a great deal of interest: these were women who had never seen a living man. Not that Loki was a _man_ , exactly but…

As soon as he had carefully closed the door behind them, Loki spoke. “Are we alone, Hannah?”

“We are. I share these rooms, but Cate is at work.”

“Good.” With two strides he was by her and one hand took the back of her head and pulled her face to him. The other wrapped around her waist and pressed her soft body against the firm planes of his. She gasped and he took the opportunity to kiss her firmly on the mouth. If this was in any way ‘artificial”, you could have fooled her. He tasted magnificent, and Hannah was aware of something hard and very large pressing into her none-too-flat belly. She broke the kiss to look into his heavily lidded eyes. He grinned back at her.

She marvelled at the rendering. She had never kissed a man, never touched a man, but she felt he was perfect: she could see every pore on his skin and feel the light roughness of stubble on his cheek. He smelled glorious: fresh and green, with a dark sort of under-fragrance that she assumed was ‘male’. His large hands were wandering across her back and up around to squeeze her breasts through her tunic. She moaned loudly and he chuckled. It was a deep sound that went directly to her core. He paused for a moment and whispered into her ear.

“Bedroom, darling?”

# Chapter Three

Hannah felt she was a pretty ‘normal’ woman. She had indulged in sexual behaviour before, on her own and on occasion with others. Everyone did: you had to or else go insane. She didn’t think she was naturally a lesbian, but as her mother had said to her when she was a child, ‘beggars can’t be choosers’. So she had dabbled, but had not bothered with that type of intimacy in a long time: she had found it to be ultimately unsatisfying. Cuddling was great and close friendships a necessity, but sexual contact was not rewarding, not for her, not with another woman. She made use of the limited range of instruments, some women called them toys, that had been saved from the inferno - or had since been reinvented. She did what she needed to, in the privacy of her own room, but mostly she tried not to dwell on it.

So Loki presented a completely new universe to Hannah: here was, to all intents and purposes, an actual living, breathing, _fucking_ man. And he was in her room, standing, looming over her, his hot breath ( _how DID they do that?)_ making her pulse race as he unfastened her clothing. He was a sex toy, she knew that, and she knew that his apparent interest in her was nothing more than the expression of his programming, simply highly complex algorithms guiding his behaviour… But when she looked up into that beautiful alabaster face, at those blue, blue eyes, the pupils blown with lust, it felt as real as anything she could imagine in her most fevered dreams.

Every brush of his hand made her skin tingle and goose bumps ripple. The shape of his neck, the smell of him made her mouth water. When she reached out and put her shaking hand on his bare bicep he gasped and moaned at her touch. He tugged gently on her hair fastening and pulled her long blonde locks from the makeshift knot she had fashioned in haste just an hour earlier. Loki’s eyes ran over the golden cascade as he allowed his fingers to feel the strands before he caught her head in his grasp and pulled her to his lips once more.

His mouth was warm and moist, like a human’s would be, and he tasted real too. Not as sweet as the women she had kissed in her youth, but fresher; like herbs, she thought. He smelled human too, and now Hannah was aching for a more intimate touch. She pressed her mound into his thigh and he chuckled darkly into her mouth.

“Has it been a long time since a man held you, my darling Hannah?”

She almost laughed. It seemed like such a silly question, before she remembered he had been in stasis for maybe 200 years. “Never, Loki. There are no men.”

He paused in his meticulous tracing of the line of her jaw with tiny nips and pecks. “No men like me, no, indeed not.”

“No men _at all,_ Loki.”

He pulled back to look into her face, his head at a quizzical angle. “What happened to them?”

“There was a virus, a weapon gone wrong. It acted only on the Y-chromosome. It killed them all, and it also damaged the women’s DNA. No male babies, they all die before they can be delivered, so we don’t try to make them anymore.”

He looked even more confused, so Hannah decided that was enough conversation for now and grabbed a handful of that sleek black hair to kiss him again. Her moans were louder than his as they shuffled closer to her bed, Loki’s large hands running over her body, making her melt inside. She had never wanted sex more, never felt so out of control. She was rather scared, too. Chantal had said that the _Companions_ (as they were officially titled) were totally safe, but who knew what might have been damaged or degraded in the centuries that had passed since she banished them to their storage boxes?

Nevertheless, lust was winning over fear. The deep noises that came from Loki were making her head spin. And when he slid one hand down, over her belly and between her folds she almost screamed. Her hips jerked forward involuntarily and he laughed again. He was nuzzling her hair and the sound echoed through her head.

“So very wanton, my dear. Lie down, let me show you what a god can do for you.”

His mouth was on her before her head hit the pillow: sucking, licking, biting lightly, until she screamed again, her hips lifting off the bed to reach him as he laughed louder than ever. He pulled her legs over his shoulders and dived in again, relentless until she pulled hard enough on his hair to get his attention. By that stage Hannah was almost passing out because she was more or less unable to breathe: orgasms were cascading through her in an uncontrolled flood.

Loki sat back on his haunches and regarded her, a look of satisfaction on his face.

“Wow, Loki…” she was still recovering her respiration, “…that was…”

“Magnificent?” he offered.

“Good word. Yes, _magnificent._ ”

“I take it that as there are no men, you are still a maid, Hannah?”

This time she had to laugh. “Yes, I suppose I am, technically.” That endearing turn of the head again. Whoever had made these machines knew all the tricks. It was no good making them love you if you didn’t love them back, at least a little. “I have had sex before, Loki. With women, of course, and used… you know.” Suddenly she felt uncomfortable speaking about it, almost as if she would be judged.

But Loki did not judge her; he simply smiled broadly. “Then you are in for a very pleasant experience, Hannah.’ Seeing her look of apparent alarm, he softened his voice. “I will be gentle, of course, and you must tell me if anything hurts or bothers you. We can stop, at any time.”

_Not THAT much like the source material, then_

She nodded mutely. She was a bit scared, he was right about that. It was a daunting prospect, especially in view of the size of him. From the account his previous ‘owner’ had given, he was relentless in his determination to give pleasure, and the truth was she had not used penetrating toys much. _And_ she was not in the first flush of youth… it was all adding up to make her extremely nervous. But she still wanted to try.

Very much.

Loki kissed her softly on the mouth as he guided her into a more suitable position, making sure she was resting comfortably on the bed and pillows. His fingertips teased her nipples and tickled the flesh on her belly, then her legs. He brushed her folds, which were still very wet.

“I think you are ready my darling Hannah, do you feel ready?”

She looked down the pale expanse of his beautiful chest and stomach. He was still kneeling between her legs, his long thick cock standing up. She nodded again, not trusting her voice yet.

“I will go slowly, but tell me if you are not happy. Promise me?”

The nod again. Suddenly she had a strong desire to touch him. She sat up a little and reached for his erection: she wanted to know what it felt like and she was amazed. It was cool, as was the rest of him apart from his mouth, but it was also soft, like a velvet glove over hardness. He moaned as her fingers traced the shape, following the line of the thick vein from the base to the slightly bulbous end. Once again, she marvelled at the skills of his makers. Feeling less anxious now, she lay back and looked into those dark, intense eyes.

“Make love to me, Loki. Please.”

He lined his body up, hovering over her. His tip nudged at her entrance as he kissed her again, this time deeper, and as their tongues danced together he pushed a short way inside. It felt strange, this intrusion, but good. She was so wet that she was sure she would not have any problems getting accustomed to him. He stayed, gently rocking his hips until she seemed comfortable, then went in a little further. Now his movements were more definite, and she felt the brush of his penis against her G-spot, creating a different, deeper type of arousal. She began to moan, a visceral noise from within her belly and it turned her on more to hear it.

Suddenly he thrust in as deep as he could go and she felt the cool skin of his pelvis against hers. She was filled, more than she could ever imagine, and it was wonderful. She clutched at his shoulders and kissed the alabaster skin of his neck.

“You feel wonderful, my darling Hannah. Perfect.”

“So do you, Loki, dear god, so do you.” Her breath was coming in short bursts again, and the urge to move against him was overwhelming.

“There is no pain, my beautiful one?”

“None. I told you, I have had… _things_ in there before.”

He chuckled again, and the heat of his breath on her ear was delicious. “But surely, nothing like me?”

She shook her head. “No, of course not.” All her fears had gone now, and all she could think of was how badly she needed to feel him moving inside her. He seemed to understand and began to thrust powerfully as she rose up to meet him. Her already sensitive body didn’t take long to reach another peak and Loki followed soon after.

“Loki?”

He was wrapped around her, his long nose nuzzling her hair, which lay on the pillow like a storm, mingling with his. “Yes, my love?”

“Was all sex like that? Between men and women, I mean?”

“I do not believe so. I was not given access to all the information, but from what-” He paused suddenly, his face saddening as he seemed to recall something. Then his expression stiffened. “From what my former _mistress_ said, it was not always quite so, er… _magnificent_.”

Hannah had turned her head to look into his face. His eyes were sparkling with amusement now, but she saw some residual tension in his jaw. Obviously he was still adjusting to his new environment. She lay her head back down and began to think about what needed to happen next. First she had to go and see Claire to fill her in on the precise nature of Loki and the other two. The Commander was the one who would have to handle the situation, and decide what was best. Once she had passed over the information it would be out of her hands.

_I’ll probably lose him_

_Or at least have to share_

_I don’t want to_

Hannah sat up quickly and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She did not like these thoughts; they were unlike her. She had never been that selfish or greedy, so why did she feel this way? She stayed there, Loki’s hand stroking her back as she struggled with the desire to keep him in her room and tell no one about his true purpose.

Then the door opened and Cate came in, carrying a box.

“Hannah, the books have- OH!”

******

“When were you planning to tell me we have three sex-bots in the colony, Han?” Cate was glaring at her friend, when she could drag her eyes away from Loki, who had dressed and joined them in the shared living space. The books that Hannah had found in Chantal’s bedroom were on the low table between them.

“I didn’t see you after I found out, Cate. I would have.”

“After you had fucked all three? Or just him?” she jerked her thumb in Loki’s direction.

Hannah stared at her friend. In all the years they had known each other they had never really disagreed about anything, certainly there had never been any bad feeling. Her blood ran cold: if this was the result of the Companions’ arrival on them, what was going to happen in the rest of Orbital 4? Then she heard a familiar sound: Cate was laughing.

“Oh Hannah, your face! But really, it’s nice to share, love.”

Twenty minutes later, Loki safely stowed back in Janet’s lab, Hannah was on her way up to the Command Floor. Charlotte greeted her warmly as she left the lift.

“Hannah! How are you? I keep hearing intriguing rumours about your last mission.”

“Do you?” Hannah tried to look casual. “Is Claire free? I really need to speak with her.”

Claire was looking out of the window when Hannah went into her office, but turned and smiled. “So Hannah, it seems you had more luck yesterday.”

“I did, but there is something I need to tell you. About the androids.”

The Commander raised her eyebrows as she sat down in the big chair behind her desk. “Oh yes?” She indicated the smaller seat in front of it, and Hannah obliged, glad to be off her wobbly legs, although she sat down carefully. Loki had given her body a thorough work out. She composed herself; what she had to say was fairly momentous.

“They were created as sex toys, Claire. Highly sophisticated, incredibly expensive, custom-made sex toys.” Her superior sat, open-mouthed, listening as Hannah told her the whole story, including the fact that she had ‘road-tested’ Loki that morning.

“So you’re telling me that we have three artificial men on board, designed to fall in love with and fuck women, and designed to be so attractive the women fall in love with them too, instantly?”

Hannah nodded. She could see the turmoil in Claire’s face. She recognised it from her own mirror. “It’s a tricky one, isn’t it?”

“Who knows?” The political brain that had got Claire to the top was already kicking in.

“So far? Only you, Cate and me. Although Amanda has access to the files, as does Julie. And Loki might tell Janet and her staff: he’s not exactly discreet.”

At that moment, the communicator on Claire’s desk dinged softly.

“What is it, Charlotte?”

“Amanda is here, Claire. She says she needs to speak to you urgently.”

“OK, send her in.”

Hannah’s boss burst through the door. “Claire, I-“ She spotted Hannah and stopped. “Oh, _Hannah_. Of course. I might have guessed you’d go behind my back.” She turned to the Commander. “Has she told you? About these things? What they’re for?”

“Sit down, Amanda. Yes, she has; yes. So, we have a problem, don’t we?” She paused, looking from one woman to the other. “And for the record, I think Hannah did the right thing in coming straight to me.”

“Straight after she’d been to bed with the robot, you mean.”

Hannah stared at her boss. She’s never seen her so angry, and never heard her speak in that way to anyone. Least of all her. “Look, Amanda; I’m sorry. Wait ‘til you meet him. I think you’ll-“

“Understand? Oh no doubt, but I can’t believe you didn’t at least _tell me,_ Han.”

*********

A while later the two women were standing outside the lab window. Loki was back on the bed; a patient look on his face as Janet scanned him, then asked him to perform various actions for the benefit of her recording equipment. When he began to disrobe, Amanda took a sharp intake of breath.

“What is she doing?”

“I imagine she is going to examine his fully-functioning genitalia. After all, that is a pretty important aspect.”

Her boss nodded, still appearing rather dazed. Loki turned and smiled wickedly at them through the glass. Janet stooped down for a closer look and Amanda turned away suddenly, her face beetroot red. Janet straightened up, walked towards them and spoke into the intercom.

“Can you come in, Hannah? Loki says he needs you there to make him…” she hesitated. “… _perform_.” She looked away quickly, blushing. Loki was grinning now, his eyes sparkling with that dark mischief again. Hannah glanced at Amanda, who waved her hand dismissively.

“Oh go on. I suppose if what you say is accurate, and he has ‘imprinted’ on you or whatever, then it wasn’t really _all_ your fault.”

The door lock clicked open and Hannah walked into the lab and over to where Loki stood, naked, his arms outstretched. As she reached him he gathered her into a passionate embrace, his mouth crushing hers. Janet, who had stepped away slightly, turned and shrugged her shoulders at Amanda who was still in the corridor outside, as if to say, “What can you do?” The other woman glared back, trying to quantify her own feelings.

All her life Amanda had strived to be the sort of person who was always in control. That was how she came to get the promotion; she was not one of those people who was tossed and blown on the sea of her emotions. But the sight of this… _creature_ had completely floored her. She had been furious when she read the files Hannah had brought back from Earth, but only because she felt betrayed. The facts about these things were so massive, so very important, and she had been kept out of the loop. But actually seeing Loki, his body, his eyes, his…

_Sweet heavens, that is the phallus of a GOD_

Once or twice recently Amanda had pondered running for office, perhaps even for Commander, after Claire decided to step down. Now, as she was standing there, her whole body was shaking with sexual frustration at the sight of Hannah and Loki looking at each other with undisguised lust. She was profoundly happy she was not the person who would have to come up with a way of ‘feeding’ the five thousand with just three sex-bots.

# Chapter Four

Janet turned and looked at the time readout: 3 a.m.

“Fuck.”

Sleep was eluding her. Every time she closed her eyes she saw poor William’s empty eyes. He was so beautiful, and it was such a terrible waste that he had destroyed himself. Her preliminary examination suggested that there was some data salvageable from his core chip, and some of his components could be reused. But somehow he had managed to make sure that everything specific to his individual programming and experience – in other words, all that made him unique – was deleted irretrievably when he disconnected his power source.

In a nutshell, he had committed suicide. A machine had deliberately killed itself. It was an unsettling concept, to say the least.

She had admired his exquisite detail as she examined his remains. The people at _Barton European Systems_ had made such a perfect facsimile of a human man, right down to the hairs on his arms and those beguiling freckles… Every pore was there, the lovely dark eyelashes that must have made him irresistible in ‘life’. She sighed and turned onto her other side. If only she could have seen him before he... The seasoned scientist was alarmed to feel a tear sliding down her cheek.

Hannah had sent her the file from Chantal’s mainframe and what he had done made more sense in the light of that. These incredibly complex machines had been designed and programmed to become deeply attached to – in effect to fall in love with - their owners, and it was clear that Chantal had loved them all back. But above all, she had chosen William to be her de facto spouse and his response when she finally died was, not surprisingly, deep grief. He had loved her; so much so that he could not continue without her.

Another thing that was haunting Janet was his physical resemblance to Loki. There was the same face, fundamentally, although the hair colour changed the look of the eyes dramatically. William was fairer and with curls, of course, but as they were both based on the same actor, just at different ages and in different roles it wasn’t surprising that underneath they should look quite similar. But the contrast between them seemed to go beyond the superficial physical ones: from Chantal’s account, William was sweet and kind. Loki was very different: arrogant, wicked at times, although when it came to Hannah…

Janet felt a stab of jealousy. At first, when she had seen how the android looked at her old friend, she had been amused and pleased on Hannah’s behalf. Now, ever since the awkward but strangely erotic business in the lab earlier, she found her stomach tensing with this unaccustomed sensation. There was no denying that Loki was incredibly attractive, and oozed sexuality. And the idea of being able to have sex with such a perfect replica of a real man was extremely arousing.

She wondered how quickly she could reactivate the other two – and if they were still functioning as Loki was.

*****

Hannah was screaming again. She tried to stifle it, but Loki’s tongue and fingers were too much. She writhed against his mouth, lost in ecstasy. As he loosened the pressure of his forearm, which had been holding her down on the bed, she regained some control. She felt a surge of embarrassment: Cate had to have heard her.

“It is wonderful to see and hear you enjoying so much pleasure, my darling Hannah.” Loki was crawling up the bed towards her, a predatory look on his face.

“I’m sure it is. But I really shouldn’t make so much noise. It will be disturbing Cate.”

His face became serious for a moment. “You believe she will be jealous?”

Hannah laughed hoarsely – her throat was rather sore. “I think every woman who has met you is extremely jealous of me right now, yes.”

He smiled proudly and then something seemed to occur to him. “Should I go and see Cate? When you and I have finished, of course…?”

Hannah stifled the immediate “No!” that tried its best to burst from her lips. She had been wrestling with this matter all day, since Cate had arrived unexpectedly with Chantal’s deconned books. They were friends; dear, loving, very close friends. Up until now, they had always shared everything they could: food, clothes, books, you name it. But this felt utterly different to Hannah.

“I don’t know, Loki.” If she was going to share him with Cate, it would have to be now, tonight, because no doubt Claire was already planning what to do with him. How to be ‘fair and equitable’. Once again, a painful stab of jealousy, this time mixed with a little grief. She was bound to lose him soon. Hannah looked into his face, now above hers. His eyebrows were still raised in a question. “How do you feel about it?”

_What are you doing? For fuck’s sake, he’s a machine!_

Loki looked steadily at her. No doubt his programming was whirring away behind that beautiful visage, taking into account his new situation and what he had been learning in the lab about the colony. She took the time to arrange herself comfortably in preparation for his next onslaught.

“I think that, given there are so many women here and no men, and that you have a society run on the basis of equal shares for all, your leaders will have only one choice. I am going to have to be distributed equally, like any other commodity or device.” Hannah thought she saw a flash of regret in his face, but that may have been wishful thinking. He paused, as if gauging her reaction. “Do you think Cate would welcome my attentions?”

“I think she would bite my hand off if I were to offer you to her, Loki. And I don’t blame her one little bit.”

****

She didn’t hear him knock on her door at first because she had wrapped a pillow around her head and put earphones in, in order to drown out the latest round of Hannah’s orgasmic screams. He tried again, more loudly this time and the sound got through.

“Yes?”

“May I come in, Cate?’

_What the…?_

“Yes…”

The door opened and she gasped at the sight. He was dressed in just his loose trousers. Even in the low light from the living area she could see the pale curves and lines of his perfectly sculpted chest. She noted how the black of his long hair contrasted with the alabaster sheen of his skin where it brushed his strong shoulders. As he turned to close the door she was able to admire the equally delicious shape of his back muscles and how lickable the little dimples at the base of his spine looked.

“What do you want, Loki?”

He chuckled darkly; it was the sexiest sound she had ever heard. “I believe the question is: what do _you_ want, my darling Cate?”

Her stomach sank as she absorbed the meaning of his words. “Does Hannah know you are in here?” She barely recognised the tight, tremulous sound that came from her lips.

“She sent me, Cate. She knows that I will have to be shared, and she told me that she feels you should have the first opportunity.” He looked at her carefully, taking in her increased breathing rate and the flush of redness that was rising up the olive skin of her graceful neck. “I think you _do_ want me, don’t you, darling Cate?”

She moaned quietly, her hands gripping the covers convulsively, her head spinning. She loved Hannah; adored her. _But this?_ It felt wrong, but right at the same time.

_He’s Hannah’s_

_She offered_

_It’s a machine, not her boyfriend_

_I don’t want to hurt her_

_Claire will make us all share him, so why not?_

In the meantime, her body was rapidly making the decision for her. Hormones were kicking in and natural processes began to take over. While she was struggling with her conscience, Loki had crossed the room and sat down on the edge of her bed. He reached over and touched her long chocolate brown hair, twisting a few strands between his long elegant fingers. Cate could see the undeniable desire in his eyes: she knew that look.

Like her friend, she had tried sex, and found it wanting. Loki was a whole new ball game.

“May I, darling Cate?” His mouth was next to her ear and his breath made her shudder with want. Still he had not touched her beyond that toying with her hair.

“Yes, Loki…” she breathed and his lips caressed her temple while his hand lifted the dark shimmering strands of hair away from her neck. Soon he was sucking softly on the sensitive skin there and she was moaning in response. Like Hannah, she found him overwhelming. He seemed so alive, so real.

Gently, he pulled the bedclothes from her fevered grasp and revealed her trembling body. She was as nervous as her friend had been, and it was clear that Loki realised this immediately.

“We will take this as slowly as you wish, my darling Cate. Tell me if you want me to cease. Promise?” His eyes were dark with lust as he looked into hers. Unable to speak, she nodded; even the most loquacious of women were struck dumb by Loki. His large cool hand then slid under the t-shirt she was wearing. The feel of his fingertips on her skin made her shudder and he took the opportunity of her distraction to kiss her mouth softly. Something snapped inside then and she kissed him back ardently.

His chuckling returned as Cate pulled him on top of her, feeling the soft icy skin of his chest and back, slipping her fingers down inside the waist of his trousers. It was his turn to gasp as she located his hardness and squeezed it gently. No longer hesitant, she tugged gently. Loki took charge once more, and she squealed as he made short work of her clothing, tearing the t-shirt and shorts from her. His hand reached between her legs and the cool hard pressure of his fingers on her clitoris made Cate arch into him as he kissed her until she had no breath. When he released her mouth she shouted his name.

Next door, Hannah stared at the ceiling.

*****

Claire composed herself. She had slept on it, made a decision and now she had called the main players in this tricky matter to a meeting. She would take their opinions into account, but she was pretty certain that what she had decided was the best way forward.

Amanda was the first to arrive, shortly followed by Miriam and Janet, who were chatting excitedly as they came in. These three took seats at the large conference table as Hannah, Cate and Mary – Head of Security – joined them. Once everyone had settled, Claire called the meeting to order. She looked around at the six women. Hannah and Cate looked rather flushed, and both had sat down rather carefully. Claire had little doubt what they had been doing; she had permitted Hannah to have Loki in their quarters again last night… That thought was extremely distracting, so she did her level best to suppress it.

“So, colleagues, I have been giving a great deal of thought to what we should do about these…” she glanced at her tablet, “… _Companions,_ is that what they are called, Hannah?”

“That was the commercial name for them, yes. I have only found a few references to them in the archives,” she glanced at Amanda, “ so it seems that only the mega-rich could afford to commission any. As far as we can tell, the three we have are the only surviving examples.

“Well, that’s good, I suppose. I think it is very important that we handle this correctly. I am sure all of you are aware of the outbreaks of unrest on Lunar Prime, and last year on Orbital 2 and Mars Alpha. The causes in all cases seem to have been unfairness – or at least the perception of unfairness.” The others were nodding. She stood up again and walked around the table so she could see everyone’s faces clearly. “Janet, do you think the remaining androids are also functional?”

The Head of Science nodded. “No reason to think otherwise, Commander. Their cases are in the same state, and the lights are on. The material is impossible to scan through, however, so the only way to be certain-”

“Good.” Claire cut her off. “Assuming that they are, I propose that we set up a lottery.” She held up her hand to silence Mary, who had turned in her chair and looked ready to protest. “Everyone will get her turn, of course. The lottery will simply decide _when_ and _with which_ of these…” She wondered what to call them. _Machines? Toys?_ “… men.”

She sat down in her chair and looked at the others. Hannah and Cate looked at each other: neither liked the idea of sharing Loki, even thought they had known all along that it was inevitable. Janet was itching to get back to the lab and start up the next one. Miriam was wondering if she’d be busy with patients: either suffering from the effects of unaccustomed activity or casualties from fights. Amanda looked grim. She had hoped she might get some preferential treatment, but it seemed not. Mary was the only person who appeared happy. She was certainly the first one to speak.

“I think that’s the best solution. And I also think we should get on and get this done. There are already rumours abroad, and the longer we try to keep things quiet, the worse that will get.”

“Very well. There are no objections?” Nobody protested. Claire put down her tablet and clasped her hands. “Janet, activate the remaining two and let me know if they are in full working order. As soon as we know that, we can release the information to everyone. Charlotte?”

Her PA stepped forward from the corner of the room where she had been standing so still and silent that few of the others had noticed her. “Yes, Commander?”

“Start preparing for the lottery. Every adult woman in the colony, to be selected in a random order. How long do you think, with each person…?” She was looking at Hannah, who shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She stared at the wall above Cate’s head, trying not to grind her teeth at the idea of a queue of women being ‘serviced’ by Loki.

“48 hours at least,” she finally managed, “ because the whole idea of heterosexual intercourse is pretty new around here. It might take a while for some to be… ready.” She paused while she marshalled her thoughts, trying to be professional and dispassionate. It was not easy. “ And some people will want an opt-out, Claire. Not everyone wants a _man_.”

The Commander huffed. Of course she knew that. But she had only seen Loki on the CCTV footage and that was enough to cloud her mind and that irritated her. She nodded to Charlotte and began to get out of her chair. “I will come with you, Janet. I think it’s about time I met Loki, and I’d like to be there when the next one appears.”

“There is one more thing, Claire.” Janet was the only woman still in her seat. “I have been examining the remains of the android Hannah found by the grave. He did a good job of destroying much of his data, but I think it might be possible, with the right materials and skills, to manufacture more of these things, thanks to what I have recovered from him.”

The Commander grinned; that was brilliant news. Something like that – the data, the component parts – would be immensely valuable on the open market. She patted Janet on the back. “Fantastic! Now, let’s go downstairs, shall we?”

An hour later Claire stood with Amanda beside her in the corridor outside Janet’s main lab, watching intently as the scientists in their protective gear opened the next container. She had met Loki. He was gracious and charming. And unbearably sexy. He seemed disappointed that neither Hannah nor Cate was with her. Perhaps the next one out would be for her… Claire returned her attention to the action in the lab. Realising that it was intended to operate in a vertical position, Janet and her colleagues had stood the box upright, and when the door swung open a vision stepped out. Tall, slim, clear-eyed and golden-skinned, he was the most beautiful thing Claire had ever seen.

Much to her chagrin, he was staring at Amanda.

“Oakley… The randy little bastard!”

“What?” Claire had no idea what Amanda was on about. “Is that his name, ‘Oakley’?”

“Yes, it’s unmistakeably him. I read about him.” She laughed softly. “He’s going to have a great time here.” She was still staring through the window at the android. He had an angelic halo of blond curls, but the look on his utterly perfect face was anything but innocent or holy. Undisguised lust emanated from every pore and it was directed entirely at Amanda, who had begun to blush under the intensity of his gaze.

In an attempt to preserve what remained of her dignity and authority, Claire turned to leave. “Ask Janet to let me know when he has been decontaminated, would you, please? I have work to do.” She waved her finger sharply over the lift call panel and stepped promptly into the car when the door opened. Once she was on her way up the station to her own office she released a great sigh. Against all of her principles, she was going to use her position for her own ends. She simply had to. She was going to pull rank for the first time, and jump the queue. She had never wanted anything as much as she wanted Oakley.

Back at the lab, Amanda had sat down on the bench by the window and was trying to calm her racing heart. She understood Hannah completely now. Janet had told her that Loki had looked through the Med Centre window at her friend in the same way that Oakley had just looked at her. It was quite something.

_A knicker-dissolving something._

She really needed to get back to work, but for now, her legs didn’t seem to want to work. And she suspected that Claire had her own designs on Oakley, judging from the way she had looked at him, and the brusqueness of her manner when she left.

# Chapter Five

Oakley was adapting even faster than Loki had to his new surroundings. It helped that once he had been completely decontaminated, he was able to synch metadata with Loki, thus gaining in an instant all the information the other had assimilated. He sauntered back from the irradiation chamber to find the Commander awaiting him. She was blushing wildly.

“Oakley.”

“Ma’am?”

“C-c-c-laire!” Her normal cool demeanour had deserted her. “My n-n-n-name is Claire.”

He took a step closer and she gasped. He smirked and her stomach flipped. He was utterly beautiful and so sexually attractive she was struggling to breathe. Suddenly she was vaguely aware of a low growl coming from Loki’s direction. She glanced over to see his venomous stare trained on Oakley. His jaw was working and as he turned away from his ‘colleague’, a look of contempt on his beautiful pale face, he saw Claire watching him.

“I suppose it helps to have something for comparison,” he tipped his head towards Oakley, “so you can see just how special a _God_ is…”

_Jealousy? In a MACHINE…?_

“Commander?”

Janet’s voice cut through the fog of her desire and bewilderment and Claire began to recover her wits. “Yes Janet, what is it?” She kept her eyes on the young ‘man’ in front of her.

“Do I have your permission to open the final container?”

“What…? Oh yes, of course. Go ahead.” Claire almost asked Oakley to go with her there and then, but decided at the last moment that - _‘discretion being the better part of valour’_ \- she would be subtler than that. She bid the two androids and the science staff a good day and headed back to her office. She needed to get Charlotte to ensure, somehow, that she had first dibs on those six feet of youthful deliciousness.

*****

Hannah and Cate sat, silent and still in their shared space, occasionally looking at each other. They hadn’t really spoken since Loki had emerged from Cate’s room very early that morning and returned to Hannah’s for a ‘proper farewell’, as he put it. These women adored each other, but they were both in uncharted territory. Men and women loving one another and having sex, and all the problems that go along with that were unknown in their world. Relationships between women were subject to jealousies, infidelities, pain and unrequited love, of course, but there had never been anything like that between these two in the fifteen years that they had been close. Hannah had long since given up on sex with others, and Cate was yet to find anyone she wanted to be close to - romantically, anyway.

Cate looked at Hannah, who was looking at one of Chantal’s books. It was large and thick, with a red cover. “What’s that?”

Her friend passed it over. “It’s _the_ book, the one she talks about in her document. It’s plays and poems.” She looked at her friend archly. “It’s _Shakespeare,_ Cate. You’ve heard of him, surely.”

Cate shrugged and looked at the picture on the cover. It was reproduced from an old woodcut or engraving, oddly crude but still mesmerising. She opened the book carefully, preserving its crumbling contents, and turned to the index.

“Which play is the other one from? The one they haven’t opened yet?”

“Hold on.” She reached for tablet and scrolled. “Three plays…Henry the Fourth – two parts of that, and Henry the Fifth.” She looked at Cate, who was madly turning pages. “She says he was a real King, but reinterpreted for the time of the play. I must say, he sounds very…interesting. And if he looks like Loki, well…”

Cate froze. It was the first time his name had been uttered since he left them to return to Janet’s lab. She lifted her eyes reluctantly and gave a cautious look at Hannah, whose eyes softened. “It’s OK, Cate. I’m OK about it, really. I sent him to you, after all. I didn’t want you to have to wait in a queue to experience… _that_.”

Her friend blushed, feeling the tears pricking at her own eyes. She had felt so conflicted: he was irresistible; he was only a machine, but he didn’t seem like one. She had slept with her best friend’s lover – that was how it felt. “Oh Hannah. That was incredibly generous. I don’t even know how you could bear it.” She put the book aside and crossed the room to sit beside her friend. “I know how hard all this must be for you. I am sorry. I should have passed, but… I just couldn’t control myself… I am so sorry Hannah. It won’t happen again, I swear. Even if I have to die old, cranky and unbearably moody, driven mad with sexual frustration…”

Although she attempted a smile, a large, fat tear made its way down Hannah’s cheek. She brushed it away, feeling foolish. How could she be in love with a robot? She had known before she saw him he wasn’t a real man, and yet… From the very first moment she had wanted – _needed_ – to keep him, to have him to herself. And now she was going to have to accept that he was to be shared with the rest of the colony. _Or worse, maybe leased out to others beyond O4._ She shuddered and fresh tears welled up at that devastating thought.

*****

“Have you heard the latest?”

The barista handed the ‘coffee’ over. It was expensive, made from a mixture of real coffee (hard to grow, rare as rocking-horse shit), substitute plant material and synthetic chemicals, but nevertheless women regularly spent a lot of credits on it. “No,” she replied to the customer. “What are they saying?”

“That those robots the tech-scav found the other day are toys.” The young woman leaned in, leering. “ _Sex_ toys.”

Mary stiffened. She was in plain clothes, keeping a low profile, and obviously the woman ahead of her in the queue hadn’t recognised her. It was a good idea for the Head of Security to mix with the general population on occasion, to get a feel for the atmosphere in normal times. Even more so today, in _anything-but-normal_ times. And now she had discovered that someone had been talking. She ordered her own drink, and took it back to her office quickly. But when she tried to contact the Commander, Charlotte informed her that she was unavailable.

“But this is urgent, Charlotte. A security matter. Interrupt her meeting or whatever!”

“I can’t do that, Mary. She’s not here.”

“Well where is she then?”

“I’m not exactly sure. In her quarters, I think.”

“OK, I’ll go there then.”

“I don’t think you should, she left strict instructions-“

The Head of Security didn’t hear what the Commander’s PA was going to say because she broke the link and set off for the residential area of the station. It wasn’t long before she was outside Claire’s private quarters.

*****

Claire was crying. She didn’t want to, but the tears were coursing down her face and into her ears as she lay on the bed. A large warm hand rested on her arm and a soft deep voice spoke.

“What is wrong, my darling? Did I hurt you?” His golden face was etched with worry. Gazing on him, Claire marvelled at the detail, the realism, how perfectly human he seemed. In fact, that perfection was the only thing that made him seem artificial: in her experience, no actual humans were quite that flawless.

“No, Oakley. Not at all. It’s just that…”

_What was it that was making her cry, actually?_

“Tell me darling. Let me help you.”

She turned her head to admire him one more time. She was going to have to hand him over, as poor Hannah had Loki, and she could see now what that must have cost her. Because Claire knew that Oakley had not fixed on her, and that despite how gentle, kind and sexy he had been with her, she was not the one he truly wanted. And worse, she had done a terrible thing and she felt utterly awful about it.

“It’s not something you can help me with, dear boy.” She stroked his cheek and felt the soft stubble and warmth of him. She teased a curl in her hand. “As I think Loki already told you, there is to be a lottery. There are many women in the colony. And we share everything equally. Even you.”

Saying the words made the pain in her chest flare more brightly and more tears welled up. Oakley leaned over, pressing his naked body against hers and kissed them away. Claire gritted her teeth and resisted the overwhelming desire to pull him onto her again and feel the power of his strong, young, lithe body one more time. Then the door buzzer went.

“Commander? Are you in there? It’s Mary. I need to-“

“I will be out in a moment. Wait there.”

Claire had not been able to wait for the lottery to begin. She had paced around her office like a caged tiger, carrying on a desperate inner debate. She had always been scrupulous in her behaviour since gaining public office, but then she had never been presented with such a temptation. In the end she crumbled: she had asked Janet to release Oakley to her _“so she could give him a tour of the colony”._

Now he was sprawled naked on her bed, looking like something from a Caravaggio oil painting, smirking at her as she dressed quickly and headed for the door.

“Stay in here, Oakley. I’ll take you back to the lab in a while.”

He didn’t answer, just stretched and clasped his hands behind the mess of curls on his stupidly beautiful head.

“Commander?” Mary was beginning to worry. Claire was usually so conscientious and reliable. She was normally working most of the day, and this was the first time that the Head of Security had ever had to go to her quarters to see her. She let out a sigh of relief when she heard the door being unlocked and stepped in without really seeing her boss. When she reached the centre of the room and turned around she was alarmed at Claire’s appearance. The normally neat head of hair was a tousled mess; her lips were red and swollen; her complexion was flushed. And worst of all, she looked shifty: she was unable to meet Mary’s gaze.

“Commander, is everything all right? Are you unwell?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” came the reply, rather too loud and abrupt. “Why shouldn’t it be?”

“No reason,” Mary responded, but she saw the way Claire’s eyes flicked to the door to her bedroom.

_Oh…_

“What was so urgent, Mary? I was just having some personal time.”

Glad to be back on a professional footing, Mary related what she had overheard earlier.

“Right. Well, I’d better do a broadcast, explain what’s happening.” She thought for a moment. “I haven’t heard from Janet about the third one yet. Have you?” Mary shook her head. “They were struggling to open his box when I was there this morning.”

_When I went to fetch my toy boy android…_

That thought made blood colour her face and neck again and she coughed to cover her embarrassment. “OK, Mary. I will draft a statement and do it ASAP. Before the rumours get any worse.”

“As you wish, Commander. I have increased the security on the Science Floor, just to be safe.”

“Good thinking. Is there anything else?”

Mary was being dismissed. She accepted it. Obviously Claire had one of the sex-bots in her bedroom, but that was up to her. Mary disapproved in principle, but she had to admit that if she were in charge, she might have used her position to get a taste herself. Pragmatic to the last, she nodded and left, heading back to her own office to alert her staff to be ready for possible trouble.

*******

“Oh for FUCK’S SAKE!”

The damn thing was not cooperating. The other two boxes had opened easily once the correct signal was sent, but this last one kept making that infuriating thudding noise every time. Janet sat down at her desk and looked at her team.

“OK, let’s ask Gloria to come down. She was the one who figured out how to get into Loki’s box, maybe she can help.” She glared at the offending lock mechanism. According to Hannah and Cate, who were waiting outside to witness his arrival, this container was occupied by a Shakespearean King: Henry the Fifth. As portrayed by the same actor again. The Head of Science chuckled to herself: that woman – the one who had commissioned these amazing machines – she certainly knew what she liked.

Gloria stood in the lift as it travelled down through the central core of Orbital 4. She was rather pleased to receive Janet’s request, as she was quite keen to see Loki again, meet this Oakley and find out what the final _Companion_ was like. Her stomach was fluttering madly and her mind was racing ahead to those encounters, so it took a few moments for her to understand what she was seeing when to door opened. There was a line of uniformed bodies in front of her: what looked like about half of the colony’s security force were stationed outside the lab entrance. As she stepped out they all stared at her, but then one of them nodded and they parted like the Red Sea to let her by. As she neared the actual door she saw Hannah and Cate standing by the viewing window and nodded to them.

A tinny voice emerged from the speaker by the door. “Ah Gloria, good. Thanks for coming. Can you go via the changing room please? You’ll need full gear.”

Twenty minutes later a muffled cheer went up inside the lab as Gloria managed to persuade the lock to operate at last. Cate braced herself: she had been researching this character, and she had found some images. Something about the combination of the plays, which so far she had only skimmed, and the way the actor had looked had made her very eager to see him in the ‘flesh’. She leaned forward so her nose was nearly touching the toughened glass as the door on the container opened slowly.

There was a delay: this one seemed reluctant to leave the safety of his long-time home. Cate kept her eyes locked on the threshold and finally her concentration was rewarded. A leather-clad thigh appeared, followed by a booted foot, then the rest of him. There was that same handsome face, only a little thinner and a little sharper than in Loki, much more mature-looking than in Oakley. A lush head of red hair and a goatee beard completed the regal appearance. His lean body was dressed in a soft red leather jacket as well as the breeches. Cate gasped: he was even more attractive than she anticipated. He looked around quickly at the crowd of suited scientists surrounding him, then his gaze turned to meet Cate’s.

She fell to her knees.

# Chapter Six

“Commander?”

“Yes, Charlotte, what is it?”

“Dr Janet is here, Commander. She needs to see you urgently.”

_What now?_ “OK, show her in.”

The Head of Science was white-faced and breathless. “Claire! We have a _major_ problem with the new one.”

Claire ignored the slip in protocol, as she had known Janet for years. “What’s so bad that you had to dash the full length of the colony?”

Janet sat down in the chair opposite the large desk, wringing her hands and appearing more distracted than Claire could ever remember seeing her. “Well… first of all we couldn’t get his container to open, so we asked Gloria to come. Thank goodness, she managed to get it to unlock, but then he took ages to step out… as if he were reluctant or something. Then…” She stopped, apparently absorbed by the view of Earth from the large picture window. The Colony Commander coughed politely. “Oh, sorry! Then he saw Cate – _tech researcher Cate, that is_ – through the window and now he is refusing to participate in the lottery.”

“What do you mean, ‘ _refusing’_?”

Janet shrugged her shoulders. “He just keeps saying ‘I will not be party to such a vulgar ritual’ and asking where Cate is. Constantly.” Tears of frustration threatened to bubble up. She had tried reasoning with him, and so had Hannah and Mary, but he simply sat in a chair in the lab, legs splayed, hands clasped, staring ahead. He was utterly implacable.

_Like a real king_

Claire looked into the middle distance for a while, thinking. “I suppose I had better come down and try to reason with him- _IT_!” She shook her head. These things were supposed to be compliant, surely? To do as humans wished…

“I have to do this address first. Rumours are spreading, because _someone-_ “ she looked pointedly at the Head of Science, because it had to be a woman on her staff, “-has been blabbing. I need to tell everyone what is really happening and what I am doing about it. As soon as I have finished, I’ll be down to talk to…what’s his name?”

“Henry. Or Harry. He answers to both. But he prefers ‘ _Your Majesty_ ’, from us, anyway.”

Claire couldn’t help smiling at that. These machines were truly amazing. Not only were they beautifully engineered to appear so utterly human that you could see every pore and tiny hair on their skin, every freckle and bump, but the programming was incredible. She had read the previous owner’s account of her time with them: this behaviour chimed perfectly with what she had written about King Henry. He was going to be a challenge.

“OK, well, I suppose he feels he’s entitled to that…title.” She laughed lightly. “I’ll be with you shortly.”

Once Janet had left she pulled up her address on the screen and read it through one last time.

_Comrades, we have been given a great gift, which we must share equally… All of us over the age of 16 will have an opportunity – if we wish – to experience what these amazing machines have to offer… To ensure scrupulous fairness, there will be a lottery to decide the order… Every eligible woman must register for the draw by Friday, that’s tomorrow, 5pm… The first allocation will be from 2pm Saturday._

Claire cleared her throat and prepared to open the broadcast system. She hoped she would not falter on the words ‘scrupulous fairness’.

*****

A gentle but distinctive ‘ding-dong’ heralded the transmission. The women in the queue at the ‘coffee’ shop looked up at the screen, as did those in the beauty salon, the restaurants and indeed everyone in the colony who was not too occupied working or asleep. Classes were paused, women downed their tools if it was safe to do so, and thousands of pairs of eyes and ears attended to their leader. Claire did not use the system often, so if she was speaking to the entire population, it had to be important. As she began, an excited hum started to fill the air.

*****

A soft tapping on the door broke through Hannah’s trance. “Yes?”

“It’s me.” Cate opened the door and came in, preceded by a steaming cup of tea. “I thought you might like this.”

“Oh god, yes.” Hannah took it eagerly, smiling at her best friend. “Thanks, love.”

Cate sat down and stared at her hands folded in her lap. “So, Saturday.” She struggled with the emotions coursing through her. She knew Hannah was suffering the same, but at least she had spent time with Loki. Henry had yet to leave the lab.

“Has Janet told you?” Cate looked up to see Hannah smiling slightly.

“Told me what?”

“Henry is being difficult.” Her friend raised her eyebrows quizzically. “He’s refusing to be included in the lottery, apparently.” Cate tried not to smile, but inside she was dancing.

“Oh dear…” She gave up and laughed. Soon Hannah joined her and they both rocked, dabbing streaming eyes, filling the air with the happy sound. Amanda put her head around the door to see what was causing the racket.

*****

Loki crossed his legs and glared at Oakley. They did not speak to each other, Janet had discovered, as apparently there was no need. They had a wireless connection; nevertheless, there was definitely a dialogue of some kind taking place. Every now and then they would look at each other sharply, or one or the other would smirk. As she watched, fascinated, she saw things change. The glaring stopped and some kind of a rapprochement seemed to be happening. She noted that both of them seemed to settle more comfortably into their respective chairs, although they remained at opposite sides of the room. The atmosphere was less tense than it had been when she came in an hour earlier, anyway.

Which was more than could be said for the room next door. She could hear Claire shouting now, and Henry’s quieter, deeper responses. He was not budging, it seemed. Eventually things became quiet in there, and after about ten more minutes, Claire emerged, her face white apart from two spots of red, one on each cheek. She was panting, her jaw clenched in anger. She walked over to Janet.

“I give up! I have tried everything. I reminded him of his responsibilities, I pointed out the situation we have here, but he refuses to listen.” She paused, grinding her teeth. She looked at Loki and glanced over at Oakley who waved to her, grinning broadly. “It seems that these two will have to pick up the slack. The time allotted will have to be reduced or it becomes impossible.” The androids both smiled wickedly. Claire threw up her hands in frustration.

“Yes,” Janet agreed, “I’ve been doing the calculations. Even if we say only 24 hours per person, that still means it will take almost seven years for everyone to have their turn…although that assumes that all 5000 of us want to.” She smiled sweetly.

Claire groaned and turned to leave. “I’ll get Charlotte to change her algorithms for the draw tonight. And I have to go and make the announcement that things have changed. How the hell I am going to explain that a robot won’t do as he is told, I have no idea. “ She took a step towards the door. “Oh, and you might as well tell Cate that Henry wants to see her.”

*****

“But that’s… OH my GOD, Julie! Really?!!” Hannah stared in disbelief at the tablet she’d been handed. “But…have you told Janet, yet. Or Claire?”

“Not yet.” The Head Archivist’s sweetly pretty face lit up as she smiled. ‘I wanted you guys to know first.” She looked over at Cate, who was sitting on the couch staring at the window, trying to process this new information. “It’s all very dependent on us being able to source the materials, and our techs being up to the task, but…” She paused, biting her lip. “You know what this might mean,“ she began.

Cate stood up abruptly. “No! Don’t say it, Jules! I haven’t even-“

A soft dong interrupted her. “Cate? Dr Janet here. Would you come to Lab One please?”

******

Henry was standing when she went in, looking out of the window at the planet below. When he heard her soft cough he turned and his fierce expression softened instantly. He stood straight and nodded formally. Cate realised she was trembling, but at least her legs were holding her upright this time. She nodded back and held her breath, waiting for something, she wasn’t quite sure what. He was still dressed as he had been when she saw him emerge from his container, except that he had donned his crown, presumably in an act of one-upmanship to assert his authority over Claire. He looked regal, a true mediaeval monarch, and incredibly out of place in the clinical, bare whiteness of the room.

“My lady, will you sit with me a while?” He pointed to the bench and somehow her legs carried her the three paces and she managed to lower herself onto it in a graceful way. He joined her in an instant, his eyes burning into hers as he silently regarded her. His gaze was so intense, so intimate, that she had to look away, lowering her eyes to her lap. She felt his hand travelling over hers to grasp it gently.

“My lady-“

“Cate.”

“Cate, I am so honoured that you have come. Your commander wishes me to take part in this… _lottery._ To share myself like some…” He shook his head as if to dismiss the thought. He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a delicate kiss to her knuckles. “But my heart has already been stolen by a sloe-eyed beauty. I will not betray her.”

Goosebumps were rippling all over her. She could not breathe. He could not be a machine. When she allowed her eyes to lift and meet his, tears welled up in them. His serious expression morphed to hopeful as his eyebrows rose; she smiled at him, overwhelmed. “Your majesty-“

“ _Harry_ , please, my Cate.”

“Harry, you know you really should do as you have been asked. I have no special claim on you… I mean, your _services.”_

He frowned and withdrew his hand. Standing up, he began to pace the room, fists clenched.

“Harry, I did not mean to imply that I _want_ that to happen, but the nature of our community means that we must share.”

He paused and turned to look down at her with such undisguised longing that she wanted to eat her words. She could not share him. _She would not_. She stood and stepped into his arms as he leaned in to kiss her, his thin lips softly brushing hers as his fingers held her chin.

“You have witchcraft in your lips, Cate.”

She laughed lightly against his mouth, which was back for another taste. “You stole that line, Harry.”

He shrugged. “The poet was good with words, my lady. Better than a rough soldier.”

They sat again and he continued to look deeply into her eyes. “What has Claire said to you?” Cate asked.

He smiled, a little wickedly, she thought. “She has accepted my decision, although I think she will try to test my resolve again later. For now, I am to move with the others to some quarters elsewhere. I believe they will be receiving their… _visitors_ there.” He made no attempt to hide his distaste.

Cate’s heart lurched a little at his words, thinking of Hannah and Loki. And Amanda had been very quiet since Oakley’s emergence. Perhaps something had happened there, too.

“When?”

He stood again, holding out his hand to her. “Now, my Cate. Will you accompany me?”

A few minutes later Cate stood in awkward silence as she and Henry shared the lift with Oakley and Loki. The latter had greeted her with a kiss on the mouth of some passion, making Henry pull him away from her angrily. Now the Norse God of Mischief stood leaning on the wall of the car, grinning at them both. Cate wanted the floor to open up – no doubt the data sharing meant Henry knew what had transpired between her and Loki. Oakley knew too, judging from the smirk on his face and the nudge he gave Loki as they entered. But Henry showed no signs of jealousy or anger towards her, just glared at Loki silently.

Happily the journey to the assigned residential quarters was not a long one. The three of them had been given adjoining apartments on the floor below Claire’s. They were identical, and Cate had been asked to show each of them around. Oakley threw himself on the bed in his and tapped the space next to him suggestively. Cate just snorted and left him to it. Loki regarded his place with his usual contempt, walking around the small space, his leather coat swishing. As she turned to leave he spoke quietly.

“Tell Hannah I think of her. Constantly.”

Cate swallowed the lump in her throat. “I will.”

Henry had been waiting less than patiently by the door of his rooms for Cate to finish with the other two. He allowed her to enter first, and as she heard the door closing Cate felt his large hands clasp her arms from behind.

“I am assured that anything which occurs in these rooms is private, Cate.”

His hot breath washed over her ear and down her neck, making her shudder. She had thought Loki irresistible, but this was of another order. There was more than lust between them; she had known that from the moment their eyes met through the glass of the lab window. Now they were alone together and her entire body was shaking again. Then his lips were on her neck and her legs gave way.

Henry gathered her into his arms and carried her to the bedroom, laying her gently down on the covers as if she were made of crystal. “Are you unwell, my Queen?”

His use of that title made her swoon even more, but she managed to shake her head. “No, no, I’m fine,” she gasped, “It’s your fault. You’re so damn sexy and romantic.” She smiled weakly at his serious face. “I’m unused to it.”

“But not totally.” His words cut her. She looked away, guilt making her feel nauseous.

“I did not know you then, Harry. And I would not have done it, but my dearest friend sent him to me.” She was alarmed to discover she was crying again, properly this time. Henry brushed her tears away with a stroke of his thumb.

“I know all this. She made a noble gesture. Loki, too. He is pledged to Hannah. He is not as… _scrupulous_ as I am, in these matters – in any matters, in fact – but it pains him, nonetheless. He is very proud, and will not show his pain to mere mortals.” Henry smiled, shrugging. It occurred to Cate that he found Loki as unfathomable as the rest of them did. “So, my lady, I do not hold you accountable for what took place before my arrival. But my Cate, and you are indeed mine, take me; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier, take a real king.”

Now he _was_ like Loki, now he looked like a predator stalking its prey. He lifted a hand to push a strand of chocolate-brown hair behind her ear, leaning in to kiss the soft flesh of her cheek. Then his lips drifted over to her mouth and all the courtly manners were gone. Hands clutched at clothing and tore and pulled. Once he had her as bare as he needed, he stood up from the bed, removing his own garments in rush. Cate watched, rapt, as his lean body was revealed. He was as pale as Loki but with a sprinkling of freckles. He seemed too thin to her, but there was unmistakeable power in him, and as he completed his task and returned to her she felt her heart pounding.

“My Cate, my sweet lady, will you take your Harry? Will you allow me to taste your sweetness, to share your beauty, to lie with you?”

“Harry of England, I am thine. C’mere.”

*****

Charlotte swore silently as she looked at her screen. She had finished re-jigging the system she had spent hours on the day before, and now she was reading the first results on her screen. She had always been more than just a PA; she was a highly skilled computer tech and it had been great fun to devise the lottery system for Claire. It had been a welcome chance to stretch her mental muscles; making it fit around the work schedule system and allowing for the preferences of those that had expressed any. But now she had had to change the program to accommodate only two ‘companions’ _and_ a shorter time allowance. Each woman would get just 24 hours with Loki or Oakley, and Claire had decided to withdraw the facility to choose which of the ‘men’ as well. All that meant that Charlotte had to input the changes and re-run the lottery, which was what she had just completed.

**Oakley – session 1 – Amanda**

“Well, well…”

Back in their quarters, Loki and Oakley smiled serenely. Henry would have too, but he was rather occupied.

# Chapter Seven

“I _beg_ your pardon?” Claire had frozen in mid-stride and turned swiftly to face the screen on the wall. The woman in the frame looked calmly back at her.

“I _said_ , we’d be willing to offer what ever you want – within reason, of course.”

The commander fought to keep a neutral expression. It was a novel experience to be on the receiving end of such desperation. Up until now, Orbital 4, with its small population and meagre resources had always been the one doing the begging. All of a sudden, with word getting out, and apparently spreading as far as Mars Alpha, the boot was very much on the other foot. If Claire played this shrewdly, the colony could do very well out of Hannah’s serendipitous discovery, especially given what Janet and Julie had told her earlier.

“I will bear that in mind, Commander Judith. Just for the moment, our… _discoveries…_ are pretty occupied here, but in view of the great interest they seem to be generating… well, we shall see.”

Claire’s counterpart on Mars frowned and signed off abruptly. The Commander of Orbital 4 resumed her stroll around the office: she found that if she had a knotty problem to deal with keeping on the move helped her to think. Julie had filled her in that morning on the details of some research that she and Cate had been doing. Thanks to the files Hannah had recovered from Chantal’s home, they had established precisely when and where the _Companions_ had been made, and by whom. Julie’s forensic brain and archivist’s skills had helped her to locate the original specifications for the base models, as well as some, but not all, of the data that had been used to make the late William, as well as Loki, Oakley and Henry. Cate had told her that she was pretty certain that most, if not all of the raw materials needed to make more of them could be sourced – at a price. And best of all, Janet had confirmed that she had the staff to do it.

So now it was up to Claire to come up with the missing elements: the organic and mineral components, and the space and equipment needed to make them. She paused in her pacing to look down at the Earth. The clouds were grey, not the blackish-brown they had been in her childhood, but still not the pristine white of the old images she had seen. Oakley and his pals were a glimpse into the past – a better time for humans. In many ways, they represented a hope for the future. And they definitely meant a rosier outlook for Orbital 4.

********

Amanda looked at the clock for the twenty-seventh time since 13.45. It said 13.57 now. Almost time. She felt sick: the squadron of butterflies in her stomach were all in flight, swooping and whirling and she was shaking from head to toe. The lift seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace to the floor where Oakley was awaiting her, and she was more anxious than she had ever been in her entire life. She assumed that someone had ‘fixed’ the lottery. It was far too convenient that she had been first out of the pot, and allocated to him. But who was responsible? Charlotte was sweet, and a friend, but straight as a die. And she doubted that Claire would have _willingly_ shared Oakley, especially not with her; not after what happened.

She looked in the mirror beside her, her heart sinking a little. She worried that she didn’t look good enough: ever since she saw him step from his container, shining like the sun and distilling sex, sleep had been elusive. And there was the paradox in all of this: men were gone, and women were no more liberated. They still worried about their appearance; they still wanted to be desired. There she was, an adult woman, anxious about her date with a machine.

Finally the lift reached its destination and she straightened her back as the door slid open. Instead of the empty white corridor she was expecting, a crowd met her. Approximately twenty of Mary’s security staff were lined up and serious-looking, filling the hallway.

“Amanda, is that you?” She heard the Head of Security herself from behind a rank of uniforms.

“Mary? What’s going on?”

“Just a precaution. A few people have tried to jump the queue.” She emerged from the far side of the crowd, beside the door Amanda knew she needed to go through. Mary’s face was solemn. “Also, you need to know this: there have been some protests. A few women think it’s a bit, well, _dodgy_ that your name came up first.”

“I agree! I’m not complaining, but…yeah.” She shrugged. “OK, thanks for the heads-up. And for the security detail.”

Mary grinned. “Just doing my job, love.” She tipped her head towards Oakley’s door, winking. “Enjoy, darling.”

Amanda blushed wildly and stepped in the direction of the panel, but the door opened before she could hail him. He stood, as high as the opening, smiling broadly; his arms were wide open in greeting. His curly blond hair shimmered, golden above that boyishly handsome honey-toned face. He was still wearing the simple clothing he had emerged from his storage container in: a sleeveless t-shirt and long cargo shorts. Early twenty-first century uniform for a student male; a completely ridiculous outfit for their time, but on him, it was perfect. Unsure what to do, she hesitated until Oakley stepped out into the corridor and gathered her into his long arms. As his lips brushed her cheek she breathed him in – sweet/salt, his fresh woody cologne fragrance borne on the heat of his young body.

“Here you are, my darling,” he whispered, stepping backwards into his room, still holding her fast against his firm body. She heard the door close behind her. Oakley leaned back, smiling happily into her face and then guided her to the seating area.

“Can I get you anything? A beer? Food?”

Amanda almost laughed, but then she reminded herself that this was a _machine,_ and he was programmed to behave like this. But then, as she did so, his eyes met hers with that intensity that made her stomach fall and her core heat up. He was waiting for an answer, she remembered.

“Oh, no, nothing thanks. Maybe later.” She managed a weak smile, but felt her lips quivering.

Oakley looked down, fidgeting a little on the seat next to her. His leg was brushing hers, and she felt his warmth through the thin fabric of their clothing. “I know we only have… I mean, I understand the situation, Amanda, but I wish we could…”

She turned, putting her finger gently on his lips to silence him. His big, round, blue eyes lifted to hers once more, and she saw what looked like distress in them. “Shhhhh, Oakley. It’s all right. I’m here now, let’s make the most of that.”

_So she hadn’t imagined it. He had – what was it Hannah called it? – imprinted?_

Where this strength was coming from, she had no idea. But somehow, despite her overwhelming wish to barricade them in and stay there forever, she was willing, for now at least, to live in the moment. He found her mouth with his as his arms wrapped around her again, this time not tenderly but roughly, pulling her body against him, as tightly as their position would allow. His tongue sought hers and they both moaned their approval as they jousted, tasting each other, questing, exploring.

Gasping for oxygen, Amanda pushed him away so she could draw in air. They stayed, both panting as their foreheads rested together. Oakley’s right hand was holding her head, his fingers ravelled in her long dark brown hair. She felt a stirring of unease: like all the women in the colony, like all living women - except for three of her friends - she had never had sex with a ‘man’. Oakley detected the tension in her.

“I will be gentle, darling, I promise. We can take this slowly. Ehehehehe. I’ll try…But please, can we…?”

He glanced down at his lap and the noticeably larger bulge there. Cate and Hannah had told her - separately - what to expect, in whispered and awkward but faintly hilarious conversations over the last few days. The ‘original’, the real man on whom these ‘models’ were based was… _gifted_ in that area. As Hannah had put it, “it’s a bit intimidating, and mildly uncomfortable at first, but _oh so very worth_ it, love.”

Oakley stood then, and fixing his clear pale blue eyes on her brown ones, he pulled Amanda to her feet. He was a good foot taller than her, but it felt completely natural when he stooped to kiss her mouth. He sucked on her lower lip, moaning softly as he tilted his hips into her. One large hand was on the small of her back; the other was rubbing her bottom firmly. She could feel the hardness of his arousal, and his heat. Amanda’s own hands were resting on his shoulders, but as the kiss deepened she slid them up his neck and under the soft cascade of curls.

The next night, back in her own bed, she tried to remember when she had stopped worrying about the practical aspects, about _how_ and _when_ and _would it hurt_... But she could not recall anything but fluttering excitement and growing pleasure from the moment they stood up. He paused in his kissing to caress her head with those amazing hands, brought his mouth to her ear and whispered:

“I know this is your first time. It feels like it will be mine too, my darling.” She felt as much as heard him take in a deep breath of air, and then he scooped her into his arms.

“I’m gonna take you to bed now, Amanda.” Her eyes rolled closed as the meaning of his words struck her fully. “I’m gonna teach you about love.” He kissed her mouth softly, then nuzzled her cheek, his own eyes shut as he seemed to breathe her in. “And you’ll have plenty to teach me, too, I’m sure.”

Everything that her friends had told her was true: it was unimagined pleasure, warm and wet and balletic; it was gentle and magical; it lasted for hours.

Oakley began by laying her down on his bed. The room was softly lit, with the facsimile of candles: a kind, flickering light that would flatter anyone and which made him look even more beautiful. He removed his own shirt before kneeling on the bed and carefully taking off her clothes. As she had expected, he knew how to make her feel as relaxed and calm as possible, and he responded to her every sigh and whimper. His lips, his tongue and, just occasionally, his teeth drove her into a frenzy, and his hands… Oh his hands!

When at last, after he had carried her over the edge to ecstasy several times, the moment came, he seemed nervous. For a split-second Amanda allowed herself to wonder at the skill of his makers, before she forgot his true nature and was swept away once more. It was better than she expected, and she had high expectations. She watched his face as he slowly, gently, lovingly penetrated her. His eyes closed in pleasure, and he murmured her name as they were finally joined, as if it were a prayer. Amanda craned her neck so she could kiss him as gently, and they looked into each other’s eyes.

Nobody would ever be able to convince her that Oakley was ‘just a machine’.

*****

It was almost 13.30, and Loki was preparing to say goodbye to his first ‘customer’. A few floors below, Hannah was trying to work at her desk, but she knew as well as every other woman on the station what was happening. She stared at the screen trying to make sense of the message that Claire had just sent her.

**_Mars Alpha is not the only one. I think we will have no trouble getting all the materials we need. I want you, Julie and Cate to come up with some additional ideas – alternative ‘versions’ we could produce. I don’t think any of us want duplicates of L, O & H walking around, do we?_ **

Upstairs, Mary was getting back into her uniform. She looked at Loki, who was sitting on the bed; he was reading a book, cool as a cucumber. She knew the full story – he ‘loved’ Hannah, there was no doubt about that, but he had done his ‘duty’ with her, and it had been thrilling. He was sexy, beautiful, charming, with just the right amount of dangerous… He looked up and smiled.

“We have a few more minutes, Mary, my love.” He chuckled darkly. “We could…” He gestured at the bed beside him.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, Loki. I have indulged myself enough – I must not neglect my duties any longer.”

He bowed his head. “As you wish.” He hesitated, and she smiled slightly. She suspected she knew what was coming. “You are a friend of Hannah’s, are you not?”

“I am.”

“Would you do me the service of giving her something, on my behalf?”

“Of course.”

He swung his legs over and stood up, walking over to the desk in the corner to pick up a paper envelope. Mary wondered idly where he had got his materials from; nobody used paper much anymore, not for communication, anyway. He handed the letter to her and she tucked it into her jacket pocket. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, his hand drifting down her back so he could give her bottom one last squeeze. He rumbled into her ear.

“You were delicious, my dear. I hope we will meet again, perhaps in less… _commercial_ circumstances.”

The Head of Security laughed lightly as she gathered up her weapon and communicator and headed for the door. Before she pressed the panel she turned to take one last look. He stood, almost as tall as the room, the dark green of his clothes a stark contrast with the white perfection of the walls. His long hair was messy from their lovemaking, his handsome face wistful. He was smiling, but it did not reach his eyes. She wondered if he was imagining how many more times he would have to do this before he could be with Hannah again.

Mary swallowed the lump in her throat and stepped back out, through the door and into her real life.

# Chapter Eight

Charlotte’s eyes were going; she could feel the heavy weight of the lids pressing down, and the print was blurring on the screen. She didn’t enjoy working at home, sitting up in bed like this, but there seemed no alternative. There was just so much to get through that if she didn’t do this she would still be trawling her way through the reams of information in a year’s time. Claire had given her a leave of absence so she could devote herself to this task; so she could take part in the most important project in the history of Orbital 4, and she had been able to assemble a really good team to aid her, but there was only one thing for it: she had to read all the documents herself. It had taken six months of work by hundreds of people in different fields, but at last they were almost ready to start manufacturing. The only part that wasn’t completely ready was the code: her area of responsibility. Hence her need to work eighteen out of every twenty-four hours.

She was about to switch everything off and try to get some sleep when a line in the document caught her attention, and suddenly she was wide awake again: _It would be possible to omit this specific aspect of the programming, in situations where the Companions were needed for a less individual purpose, without affecting the overall safety and satisfaction of potential clients…_

She read it twice more, then set the tablet down on her bedside table for a moment. She thought about Hannah, whom she knew was pining for Loki, but being incredibly dignified about the endless parade of women who had visited him; over one hundred and fifty already. Her mind turned to Amanda – brave, independent and stoical Amanda who, it was said, cried herself to sleep every night now. And she smiled when she thought of Cate and Henry. The King was still refusing to participate. Claire had tried everything, but to no avail, and finally she had agreed to a limited programme of what he called ‘conjugal visits’. Finally, Charlotte thought about Loki and Oakley. They were complying, reluctantly. She laughed to herself – a year ago, if someone had told her a machine was not ‘happy’ she would have thought them mad.

Was it was possible she had just found the solution? If what she had just read was correct (and assuming she could apply the correct algorithms) then the new versions they were about to start making could be completed _without the inconvenience of attachment to the first woman they see_. Which would mean they could function much more efficiently. The _women_ might still become attached, but that was probably less likely after only a brief ‘liaison’…

She tapped out a quick message to Julie and Janet, with the relevant section of the document attached. This could make all the difference: if these new _Companions_ came out as gentle and sexy but without the inconvenience of wanting to be monogamous (or _insisting_ on it, as Henry did) then they’d be much more marketable commodities in the brave new world they were all living in. _And it might mean that the original three could…_ She decided to keep that thought buried for now, and especially not shared with Hannah, Amanda or Cate. Not until things were clearer, both technologically and politically.

She stood up and went to look out of the window. From her rooms she could see down below, attached to the base of the station, the new module that had been supplied by Orbital 2, in exchange for the rights to the first of the new ‘models’. Within its shining metal walls, work was progressing well and growth of the three prototypes was due to be initiated in the following week. Now she had this new information, she felt energised, and more certain than ever that she and her team could finalise the code they needed.

*********

Cate turned over in the bed and reached for Henry, but felt only crumpled sheet under her hand. Scanning the room, she could make out his shape in the meagre light from the window. He was sitting in a chair at the end of the bed, leaning forward, arms on his thighs and hands clasped, head down.

“Is something wrong, Harry?”

“No, my queen. Go back to sleep.” His voice was soft, dark; sad.

“Liar.”

He laughed softly. “It seems I am unable to fool my darling Cate.” He stood and the moonlight shone off his pale skin. He was naked; he always slept that way. She watched as he strode back to join her, sliding his slim form between the covers and gathering her into his embrace. “I was feeling melancholy, that is all.”

Fat tears were wetting Cate’s cheeks. She felt the same. In the months they had known each other they had spent barely a total of one week together. Those hours had been wonderful, and she remembered every minute in exquisite detail, but it was torture when they were apart. “Oh, my Harry. Yes, I know, but I am certain you are aware that things may change in the near future.”

“If Claire will allow it.” His face was grim.

Cate snuggled into his chest, her head nestling in the curve of his neck. She knew that compared to Amanda and dear Hannah, she was the lucky one. Somehow that didn’t seem to help.

*******

The main concourse was crowded as usual, but a woman was pushing through the throng with her daughter dragging behind, complaining. “I don’ wanna!” she wailed, but her mother kept heading for the hair salon despite the protests, her child’s hand tight in her grasp. Once there, with little Jilly safely secured in a chair, Jenny sat in the waiting area and tried to relax. She was hoping to blot everything out except the novel on her tablet, if only for a few precious minutes, but a harsh voice cut into her thoughts:

“When’s your turn?”

Jenny stopped reading to look at the older woman opposite. “Pardon?”

“With the sexbots, I mean.” She was peering into Jenny’s face. “Or have you been already?”

The woman wasn’t exactly leering, but she had an expression that Jenny found faintly distasteful. “No, I have not. I haven’t been given a date yet, so I must be a long way down the list.”

Her companion barked out a laugh, a piercing, shrill sound. “I’ve got the alien. Next month.” She leaned forward conspiratorially. “Can’t wait. I hear he’s quite something.”

She grinned, and Jenny wished she could leave. She looked over, but her daughter was still arguing with the stylist, presumably about what she wanted. Ten-year-olds can be a trial. So she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, hoping the woman would take the hint. Jenny had mixed feelings about the _Companions,_ and she certainly didn’t want to get into a smutty conversation with a stranger, especially one whom she half-recognised; wasn’t she a cleaner at Jilly’s school _?_

The atmosphere in the colony had changed since Claire’s announcement. Some people had been speaking more crudely than before: explicit conversation seemed to be the norm in some circles now. Others had become more suspicious; wild rumours swept the coffee shops and salons every few weeks, and in general, people seemed to be behaving less pleasantly, as if the thin veneer of civilisation had been stripped away by the arrival of three ‘men’.

And then there were the ethics of all this to consider. Jenny had a friend, Gloria, who worked in the medical centre, and she had said that the _Companions_ were actually not only life-like to _look_ at, but that each one had become attached to one woman, which was why one of them had flat-out refused to be included in the lottery at all. The others had to be finding this ‘sharing’ a trial, machines or not. What was happening seemed to Jenny to be tantamount to a violation. She felt a twinge of guilt that it didn’t mean she wasn’t curious to experience what they had to offer.

She fretted about the affects this was having on the children: Jilly had already heard her friends talking about it, as kids do, and asked questions. Sex was easy enough to explain, but this was something altogether less morally unambiguous. There was no getting away from the fact that these machines had caused a great deal of upheaval and change, not all of it for the better. There were reports of actual physical fights breaking out, something pretty much unknown before, and as so far only about ten per cent of those eligible (and who had not opted out) had taken their turns, things might very well get worse. Some of the rumours suggested there had been corruption or nepotism, and that Claire was giving favours to her friends. Someone had told Jenny just the week before that she had heard that Claire had a ‘go’ with one of them, even before the lottery. That seemed out of character, but they were all in uncharted territory now.

And then there were the other colonies. What if they didn’t want to wait anymore than the women here did? They were all bigger and more powerful than Orbital 4. That very morning at her work there had been gossip about new versions being built, or grown, or however they make them, in that new extension pod that appeared on the science floor a few months back. Perhaps having some more to go around would ease the obvious tension in the colony, and outside it.

Opening her eyes at the sound of Jilly’s voice loudly shouting “no!” she gritted her teeth and walked over to where the light of her life was still refusing to allow the hairdresser to start cutting. Putting on her sweetest ‘Mummy’ voice, she waded into the argument.

*******

“Well, here goes nothing.” Charlotte told the computer to run the code and watched the screen anxiously. Behind her, in the small office, Hannah sat tense and nervous, while Claire paced the cramped space in her usual fashion. A soft ‘dong’ from the OS indicated the process had completed a few seconds later. Charlotte peered at the words on the screen and let her breath out in a great gust. “Looks OK. I think Number One is ready to go.”

Claire let out an uncharacteristically loud “Yes!” She strode to the comms panel and spoke into it. “Dr Janet?”

“Yes, Commander?”

“It’s a go on finishing ‘Edward’. And you might as well initiate the others. The code seems to be operational.”

“Right you are.”

Charlotte was grinning, still gazing at the screen. Claire bent down and hugged her where she sat. They looked at each other with shining eyes, both giggling.

Hannah, however, sat silent and impassive; apart from her hand, which tightened around the folded paper in her palm. She cast her mind back to the discussions that had taken place in the preceding weeks.

_What were the options? Did they have to be from the ‘Tom Hiddleston’ list (the only complete part of the archive that had survived, thanks to Chantal’s download of it) or could they make their own models from scratch? How many should they make?_

She had kept largely quiet, except to agree that it would be better if they decided to avoid replicating any of the three already there. And the option in the programming that Charlotte had found, the choice which meant they could make better ‘gigolos’ and avoid the distress of ‘imprinting’ had made her feel much happier about the whole business. Because it had begun to feel like a slave trade, or that the administration were pimping out the _Companions_. Of course Loki and the others had been created to have sex with their purchasers, but they were meant to be for just one person. This… _prostitution_ felt immoral to Hannah, not just because of her own emotional stake in it. They were wading through strange waters, and she felt they needed to be careful, for their own peace of mind.

She caressed the hard edges of the paper with the ends of her fingers. _If they could make new models, unencumbered by individual attachment, for sale and for the colony to share…_ For the first time in six months, Hannah allowed a little spark of hope to bloom in her heart.

********

The room was eerily dark, warm and humid to the point of steamy. Janet stepped over the threshold to allow the door to close and took a deep breath. The air was sweet, and it smelled faintly of soup, or stew. That made a sort of sense: they were, after all, brewing up a broth, a ‘man-chowder’. She heard a noise from a dark corner and jumped.

“Who’s there?” She was puzzled, then very annoyed. The pod was off-limits to everyone except her team of techs, all of whom were accounted for.

“I apologise for alarming you, Doctor.” Henry’s calm, deep voice was soothing as he stepped out from behind a stack of pipes. “I was simply curious, and decided to check on your progress.”

Janet relaxed a little. The existing _Companions_ were just about the only inhabitants of Orbital 4 who were no security threat here. “Well, _your Majesty_ , as you can see, the organic growth phase is almost complete on this first prototype. But that is just the beginning, as I am sure you know.”

Henry nodded curtly. He had been keeping a very close eye on proceedings in this module, as had the other two, but up until now they had been limited to what they could learn from monitoring communications between the main players and shared documents and data. As the only one of the three who had any free time, he had allowed himself to be cajoled by Loki and Oakley into paying a personal visit to the manufacturing area.

Janet was approaching one of the large tanks in the middle of the room. The others were only just in use and still dark, but this one was giving off a faint glow and steaming slightly. Her stomach was in a knot: she hadn’t been in to check on things for a few hours, and she expected to see real progress. And there was: lying immersed in the slightly opaque fluid was what looked, to all intents and purposes, like a man. He closely resembled poor William, the first that Hannah had found, deactivated after his apparent suicide. His bone structure was complete, and the outer layers, the skin, hair and muscle were almost fully formed. She could see that already he had all the fundamental facial features of Henry, Loki and Oakley. But he had an unfinished look.

“A few more hours yet,” she said, almost to herself.

“Indeed, Doctor.” Henry had quietly joined her in peering into the vat. He cleared his throat. “Will we be required to synch data with this one?”

_Did she detect distaste in his tone?_ “I’m not quite sure, actually. I believe that Charlotte is trying an adapted programming, so perhaps not. You should contact her, sir.”

Henry snapped his heels together, nodded again and turned, marching to the exit. Janet laughed as the door slid shut behind his retreating, leather-covered backside. It amused her how obviously he found contact with the other two androids beneath his dignity, and no doubt his enforced status of emissary was an uncomfortable one for him. But he did it, nonetheless. She smiled; that Cate was a very lucky woman.

She checked a few gauges and adjusted the pH of the mixture slightly before heading for the door herself. As she reached for the panel, she spotted something on the work surface nearby. It was a paper envelope, addressed to Hannah. She picked it up. She had no doubt Henry had put it there, and that it was from Loki. She knew he had been sending letters, at least one a week since they were last together.

Yes, Hannah was lucky too. Or at least, she would be.

*******

Judith looked at the large screen on the wall of her office, her fists clenched. An angry crowd had gathered outside the Martian Colony Administration Area. So far, the security teams were coping, but if she turned the sound up she could hear the chanting.

_“What do we want?”_

_“Sexbots!”_

_“When do we want them?”_

_“NOW!”_

Something must be done, or she’d have a full-scale rebellion on her hands. The commander of Orbital 4 had indicated that they hoped to have some extra models for sale soon, if the prototypes worked well. But would that be soon enough for her to survive? She looked up into the dark sky from her large window; up there, circling the old, dead Earth was her only hope for remaining in office.

She just hoped they’d hurry up.

******

Hannah sat on her bed and read his words. It was hard to see them, because the paper smelled of him, and that scent always made her eyes fill with tears. But she could make out the last thing he had written clearly enough: **_Soon, my darling. Soon L x_**

She looked up as she heard Cate tap softly on her door. “Yes, love?” Her voice was clogged with tears. Cate’s beautiful face appeared, smiling. When she saw her friend’s distress she walked over and sat down beside her, wrapping her arms around. “Oh, love. Another love letter?”

Hannah nodded.

“There is hope now, Han. The end is in sight. If these prototypes-”

“If…” Hannah shrugged her shoulders, and looked at her watch. She tried not to, but she found herself doing it every day at this time – changeover hour. A few floors up, Loki

_her Loki_

was saying goodbye to a woman, and getting ready to welcome another. She felt it, a physical pain in her chest. Fresh tears began to flow. Only Amanda shared this agony, this daily torture. “I heard Elaine from _Procurement Finance_ talking in the Burger Bar last week. She’d been with him the day before.” She ground her teeth as she looked into Cate’s face. “It was horrible. She said such… _awful_ things.” She stood and walked to the window. “I don’t know if I can stand it much longer, Cate. I wanted to… God help me, I wanted to kill her.”

Her best friend sat, looking at her own hands clasped in her lap. She had no idea how Hannah was bearing it either. She was the fortunate one. She saw little of Henry, much, _much_ less than she wished, but she did not have to share him. Not with anyone, let alone hundreds of others. She knew poor Amanda wasn’t coping either.

Whatever they were doing downstairs, she just wished they’d hurry up.

# Chapter Nine

“Thank you, Doctor.”

Miriam smiled to herself. Funny how this machine, this facsimile of a man was so much more polite than at least half of her human patients. She continued her survey, walking around his tall frame. Edward was around a foot taller than her, like all the iterations of Mr Hiddleston. She admired the solid curve of his arse, and the long, powerful legs. He had kept still and patiently accepted her prodding and poking, actually thanking her for doing her job. She was checking that all the parts of him were in full working order (especially the ‘important’ ones), a task that could have been excruciatingly awkward, except that Edward had gone out of his way to avoid that.

“Not at all Edward, thank _you_ for being such a good patient.” The android cocked his head: Miriam kept forgetting that he was programmed to cooperate, and that being ‘new-born’, he had not picked up any of the bad habits the original three had.

_Or perhaps it’s just that his particular template makes him a naturally nice, compliant young man._

“I think that’s everything. You can get dressed now.”

She turned away quickly and walked to the desk, sitting down and finishing her notes. Trying to ignore the way her hands were shaking and her stomach was fluttering, she summoned up every last ounce of her professionalism and focussed on her job. How the hell she was going to get through two more of these today she had no idea. Edward was standing by the door. He cleared his throat to get Miriam’s attention.

“Oh sorry, Edward. Yes, of course you can go. Could you ask Adam to come in next please?”

Fair, curly-haired Edward closed the door quietly behind him and she steeled herself. Although she had yet to meet him, she had been told that Adam was rather less easy to deal with than the charming chap who had just left. As the Medical Director tapped her screen to open his file she became aware of a presence behind her. The ‘vampire’ had materialised there, somehow entering the room so stealthily she had not heard the door open.

******

“Charlotte, I think you need to look at this. It seems that they’ve been messing with the lottery again.”

Anne, her new assistant who had taken over the day-to-day admin was calling. Charlotte sighed heavily and turned to her screen. “What have they done now?”

“Amanda is listed to see Oakley again next month. And Loki has, conveniently, a ‘free’ slot, which mysteriously reads _‘R & R’_. They’re not even bothering to be subtle anymore.”

It had become an open secret, at least amongst the computing staff, that Loki, Oakley and Henry had hacked into the colony systems, interfered with the initial lottery draw and monitored communications. Despite their rather basic technology by current standards, their programming was highly complex, and they had managed to ‘work the system’. Claire had conceded that they did not pose any real threat, but this was not on – at least, it was _politically_ out of the question to allow Amanda to visit Oakley again, much as Charlotte would love to arrange it. She pondered.

_A ‘day off’ for Loki? Well, maybe. In which case, Oakley was entitled too, surely?_

“Ok, Anne. Thanks for letting me know. Leave it as it is, but don’t publish the calendar yet, please. I need to talk to Claire first.”

******

Adam was still, and, Miriam thought to herself, ‘brooding’. He was as tolerant as Edward had been of her examination, but he showed the occasional flash of boredom: he rolled his eyes more than once. And he was so very beautiful, despite the messy hair. He had an ethereal quality, uniquely his. Several times the doctor puzzled as to whether her Hippocratic oath applied in this situation, because these machines were incredibly alluring, and so unbearably sexy she found it hard to breathe at times. She turned away to make some notes on her tablet. It was easier to concentrate if she wasn’t looking at him.

She was beginning to realise that she would need to get some others to do some of these exams. Gloria the dentist and Maggie the nurse did their parts of the task, but the three of them were in danger of being overwhelmed, because this was just the start. The numbers were set to increase very soon: Janet had twenty more reproductions of fictional characters - all portrayed on stage or screen by the same gorgeous man - in various stages of growth. As well as more copies of these first three prototypes: Edward, Adam and Caius Martius (a Shakespearean Roman hero), on the way next were a World War Two fighter pilot, a spy, a nineteenth century English lord and a charming soldier from the First World War… and these were only the first wave.

Julie had been hard at it, researching and building biographies and profiles for other, different base models of different ethnicities. She had narrowed it down to a shortlist for the group to work through: limited resources meant they would have to work from only one pattern per ‘range’, but everyone felt it was important to offer women more choice. That would have seemed like pie in the sky a while ago, but with orders coming in thick and fast from all the other colonies, they looked as if they were going to be at full stretch for years ahead. And at the last meeting, Cate had raised the possibility of licensing the tech: allowing others to set up their own fabrication operations on other colonies.

The _Companions_ represented much more than an undreamed-of revenue stream for Orbital 4, however; this manufacturing initiative was an opportunity for the women to use their hard-learned skills, reveal their hidden talents, to demonstrate their solidarity and ability to work as part of a team. Janet and her scientists had interpreted the specifications found and pieced together by Hannah and Julie; the propulsion engineering team had worked hard to replicate power units for the new androids; Charlotte and her computing whizz-kids had sweated over the code, not only to make the new versions work well and safely, but to adapt them to the contemporary world and the situation and needs of humans now; and Claire, with Cate as her wing-person had sourced the raw materials and equipment needed. Miriam felt a glow of pride: her team had a role too, in checking the finished articles. Gloria and Maggie had started calling themselves ‘Quality Control’.

Miriam straightened her back and girded her loins.

“Now Adam, I need you to take your clothes off.”

******

Loki stood by the window, calmly gazing back at the commander.

“And you give me your word that you will stop interfering?”

He nodded curtly. “Yes, Commander. If you allow us this… _small favour_ , we will do our duty with no further… _adjustments_ to the roll.” He smirked as Claire bristled: she could see he was deliberately baiting her, as Hannah warned her he would. The programming in these surviving original _Companions_ was highly sophisticated, and they learned so fast that even the short time they had spent with their original owner had taught them a great deal about humans, not to mention the past few months on the station. That, coupled with the speed of his brain, and the devious and clever character on which he was based, made Loki a formidable opponent in negotiations.

And Claire had to admit that he was pushing at an open door. She felt, as did many others, that it was immoral to deprive him and Oakley of all contact with the women they had ‘imprinted’ on. According to Mary, there was a movement starting on Orbital 4, akin to an anti-slavery campaign, and the principles they espoused chimed with Claire’s own views. If the fabrication of new models continued at its current rate of speed and success, they would be able to relieve Loki and Oakley of their ‘duties’ soon enough.

“Very well, then. You and Oakley may have twenty-four hours free every month. Who you see and what you do in that time is entirely up to you. But please, be discreet.”

She left him still smirking and she headed back to her office. Her heart felt a little lighter, and she was looking forward to telling Hannah and Amanda the good news.

******

“Ooooosh!” Charlotte sucked in breath when she looked at the screen. “Yes, Julie, I can see why you chose these two.”

“Well, it helped that I found some data about them in BES’ remaining files. It looks as though they were options in the original manufacturing runs. But yes, I agree, they are pretty, aren’t they?”

A handsome black face and an equally attractive oriental man were gazing back at them from Charlotte’s tablet. Agreement had been reached on the base models for the next phase: the new _Companions_ would be based on two more very attractive actors: Idris Elba, a Ghanaian-British star who had a big following in the Twenty-first century, and his Korean-American contemporary, Daniel Dae Kim. Everyone involved in the project was keen to broaden the range. Tom Hiddleston was beautiful, there was no denying, and his range of characters made for plenty of variety, but they needed to try to cater for wider tastes.

“Do you think you can manage the code? For the growth phase, I mean? Presumably we can adapt the behaviour programming to suit the end users…?”

“That’s the beauty of it, Julie. And now we have discovered we can turn off the attachment algorithm, they will make perfect sex toys.” Charlotte shuddered involuntarily; she found it hard to think of them in that way. She had met only the original three, and they had such fully formed personalities that remembering their true, core purpose was sometimes difficult. But she was attempting to be professional about this. The colony needed the income: it was transforming their position in the human world. As long as she remembered they were simply machines, albeit highly sophisticated and very advanced ones… she was sure she would be OK.

“Everything all right, Charlotte?” Julie was looking at her. She shared Charlotte’s concerns, and was trying not to allow her own mind to return to the fact that she had a scheduled ‘date’ with Oakley in a few days’ time. Her colleague nodded. These were strange, exciting times for everyone, but they were not easy.

******

Women were pressed into every corner, some on chairs, but most either standing or perching on the tables which lined the walls. Jenny stood up and looked around the tightly packed schoolroom; there had to be at least two hundred people there. She cleared her throat, her hands wringing nervously. Public speaking wasn’t her ‘thing’, and if you had asked her even six months ago, she would have said she was not the kind of person to lead a political movement, but nevertheless, here she stood.

“Comrades, thank you for coming to this, the inaugural meeting of the _C.E.A._ ” A murmur of approval went around the room. “Before we hear from the first speaker, a few formalities.” Jenny went through the provisional rules she and the organising committee had sketched out, and then she handed the meeting over to her friend who was the interim chairperson of the _Campaign for the Emancipation of Androids._ After three hours of lively debate, officials had been elected and a charter drawn up. Jenny, as Hon. Sec. and her friend Conchita as chair were deputised to present their demands to the Colony’s ruling body.

What struck Jenny most about the contributions in favour of releasing the three original _Companions_ from their obligations was that they came in equal numbers from people who had spent time with them and from those who had yet to have their turn. She knew that if they succeeded, she might never have the chance herself to experience heterosexual sex with one of them, but she felt so strongly about the issue that she was willing to make that sacrifice. She was not the only woman who went to bed that night feeling better than she had in months.

*****

Oakley answered his door stark naked. Amanda laughed – it was no less than she had expected.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, in his best sulky teenager voice.

“You. Honestly, you’re hardly the king of romance, are you?” She stepped deftly past him into his rooms. “I mean to say, a lady likes to be seduced, even if only a little…” She turned to see him standing by the door, appearing quite crestfallen (although his erection suggested he was not _too_ devastated by her comments). He shrugged.

“First of all, it’s my day off. Secondly, I just didn’t want to waste any time, darling.” Before she could respond he had thrown her over his shoulder with no discernable effort and marched into the bedroom. “I have been dying to see you, waiting way too long for us to be together again.” Amanda was laughing again, beating her hands pointlessly against the hard muscles of his long back. “Just enjoy the ride, darling.”

*****

Loki stepped out of the lift and crossed the corridor to Hannah and Cate’s apartment in two strides of his impossibly long legs. He was about to press the hail panel when the door slid open. Hannah was waiting, her blond hair loose, draping down over her shoulders. The rooms were warm and the lights lowered.

“Cate is staying with Henry, my love, so we-“

She didn’t have time to finish because Loki claimed her mouth with his. His long arms wrapped around her body, pulling her against him. She allowed herself to melt into his embrace, and to inhale him. Tears were falling down both their faces when at last he released her so she could take in much needed oxygen. She reached up and caressed his pale cheek. Loki leaned into her touch, his eyes closing as a little grunt of satisfaction left him. His voice was gravelly with emotion.

“My darling, how I have missed you.”

She saw his eyes open and glance toward the pile of letters behind her, tied with ribbon. She had saved every single one he sent: read them over and over; slept with them under her pillow or in her hand. Hannah wanted to tell him how she felt, but the words would not come. Her jaw was tight with the effort needed to hold in the sobs, now he was there, in her arms. Now she could feel him, smell him.

Seeing her struggle, he bent his knees and scooped her into a bridal lift, carrying her silently into her room and laying her down gently on the bed. Carefully, meticulously, he removed her clothes, his lips never leaving her, his hands stroking and pressing. When he reached her breasts she arched into him and he suckled on her as she tugged on his long black hair. Before he continued, Loki paused with his weight on his hands as he hovered over her. Gazes locked, they stayed like that for a long moment.

Then he kissed her lips once more as their moans filled the room. The months apart had not dulled her love, and her physical need for him was similarly undiminished. She was able to forget all that had happened in the intervening time, to dismiss all thoughts of the other women. He filled her senses; he occupied her mind so totally that all there was to think about was him, _her Loki_ , and his body and his deep, warm voice in her ears. When they were joined at last, when they could be no closer and shared each other’s bodies completely, she felt that nothing could ever be better than this.

Except for it to be this way _every day_.

For days and weeks after their long-awaited day together, Hannah’s mind would return to that moment of stillness: she had never shared such intimacy before. What Loki was really ‘feeling’ she could only guess at. How the many components of his brain, both organic and electronic worked to make such a believable facsimile, she wondered, but she had felt in that tiny instant of time that she loved him and was undeniably loved in return. Her rational mind knew that this was a machine, and that his behaviour was dictated by the algorithms of his programming and the data stored inside his processors, but she _knew_ he loved her. Then, and forever.

# Chapter Ten

_It’s a rotten job, but somebody has to do it_

Gloria was finding it very hard not to grin. She was nervous, of course; who wouldn’t be? There was a risk, however small, that there might be some fault, a technical glitch or a misstep in the code that could result in either a failure or some unsuitable reaction, or worse still, an accident. But there was really only one way to find that out: a road test.

She stood by the door to one of the treatment rooms, which had been hastily adapted into a more suitable environment. This was all happening within the Med Centre, because if there was a problem that was the best place to deal with it and also keep it under wraps. She tapped the panel and the door slid across. _Wow._ She felt her round, dark eyes widen at the sight of him. He stood, legs apart to the width of his powerful shoulders, arms by his sides. He filled his clothes well: his tighter-than-necessary trousers revealed strong thighs and something else she was more than aware of…

“Caius Martius, my lady. I am honoured to meet you.” He dipped his close-cropped head in a brief formal bow, but his searing blue gaze never left her. Gloria felt the blood rising to her face, and gathering elsewhere. Clearing her throat, she did her best to slow her pounding heart.

“My name is Gloria, Caius Martius. I am here to assess you.”

Caius closed the space between them instantly and ghosted one hand over her hair and down her arm. She felt his hot breath on her and her knees threatened to buckle. When he spoke again it was quieter, lower, almost menacing. “I trust I will pass muster.”

In the next room, Maggie was already lying down, because her legs had given way when Adam spoke. Now she was looking up at him as he hovered over her, transfixed by his glittering eyes. She felt no fear, only overwhelming desire, which was about to be satisfied, judging from the way he was carefully peeling off her uniform. Some time later, she remembered she was supposed to be making notes, mental ones at least, in order to report back on his ‘performance’. But when his mouth made contact with her skin, she forgot everything else for a long while.

Miriam and Edward were across the corridor, moving at a much slower pace than the other two. They were sitting together, hands entwined, just talking. And looking at each other.

“You are very beautiful, Miriam. And you are a wonderful doctor. Do you enjoy your work?”

“I do, Edward.” She smiled up at him. “Especially today.” He lifted one hand to her cheek, cupping it as he looked deeply into her eyes. Then gently, tentatively, he moved closer and kissed her mouth. It was sweetly romantic – exactly what she wanted, precisely how it needed to be for her.

In Miriam’s office in another part of the Med Centre, Janet leaned back in her chair, stretched her arms up and let out a big breath. The monitor in front of her showed that the prototypes were all working perfectly, exactly as they should. She messaged Charlotte to let her know all was going well, then she switched off the cameras. She could give them _some_ privacy, at least, but she made sure she left the system monitoring for any sounds of alarm.

*****

Julie was the last to arrive. She walked into what could at best be described as a ‘full and frank exchange of views’ between Mary and Charlotte. Both women were standing at the table, the Head of Security leaning forwards, the chief programmer upright but shaking slightly. She felt a spike of alarm: conflict was so rare in the group.

“I don’t think you appreciate the trouble this might cause!”

“Not if we spin it carefully, Mary. We can make it seem like a necessity, that there was a glitch, and he came out _having_ to be hers.”

Mary huffed, her eyes not wavering from Charlotte’s pretty face. She did not want to turn this into an argument, but there was much to consider, not least the stability of the colony. “Say we do – I’m not agreeing to anything yet – but _if we do,_ which one? Because we would be taking that particular model out of circulation, like the original three, wouldn’t we?”

Charlotte hid her triumph carefully. _She knows I’m right._ “Well, let’s look through all the options, shall we, ladies?”

She sent the updated files to everyone’s tablets. There were nine beautiful men to consider, seven of them characters once portrayed on stage or screen by Tom Hiddleston, plus the two new options. The first three new models that had been created: Edward (a sweetly handsome young man, who looked a lot like Oakley but had none of his arrogance), Adam (a dark, melancholy vampire originally from the eighteenth century, a musician and scientist) and Caius Martius (a Roman general from the Shakespeare play _Coriolanus_ , an arrogant soldier, strong and angry in the original). To these had been added Freddie Page, a Battle of Britain pilot, Jonathan Pine, a retired soldier turned spy, Sir Thomas Sharpe, a Gothic romance antihero and Captain Nicholls, part of the so-called ‘lost generation’ of young men who died in the First World War. Each had his own distinct personality, despite the inevitable physical resemblances.

In addition, after much hard work, Charlotte and Janet had finalised the specs for the two new offerings: tall, handsome Idris Elba (Black-British actor) and Daniel Dae Kim (another actor, this time Korean-American). Having spent weeks on research, Julie had recommended they use the men’s own personalities as the templates, at least initially. They had the right balance of charm and sexiness needed for the role they would be called upon to fulfil. The first examples of all of these seven new models were growing in their tanks even as this informal sub-committee of the _Companion_ project team met to discuss a matter of extreme secrecy.

The women flicked through the files, even though each had looked at them a hundred times and were more than familiar with the details. Cate gazed at Caius: there was much of Henry in his serious countenance, but the eyes were not the same. Janet smiled at Edward’s beautiful face and mop of curly hair: he was so like poor lost William. She knew he was not the one, though: he was too gentle for this task. Julie _really_ liked the look of Jonathan, so much so that she had already determined not to vote for him. And Mary was lingering on the pictures of Adam. His dark hair was enough like Loki’s to hold her attention. Charlotte, on the other hand, was torn. The three she had already decided should be shortlisted were all calling to her own, personal desires. She pulled herself together; this was important.

“Julie,” she began, turning to her colleague, “which would you choose? Bearing in mind that we can’t change our minds once the programming is set, and that we will be, as it were, removing him as an option from the market _permanently_ , as Mary so kindly pointed out.” A look was exchanged between Mary and Amanda. The latter tried to hide a smirk.

The Head Archivist sighed. “It’s not easy, but when you take out the obviously unsuitable ones, and bearing in mind that she has already shown a preference for a Hiddleston model, I think we can narrow it down to three. And personally, I think there is one that stands head and shoulders above the others, for this purpose, anyway.”

*****

As ‘grand openings’ go, the first operating day of _Companionship_ was pretty low-key. No garish banners, no loud fanfares, no fancy fireworks. Claire had announced the date some weeks earlier, once everything was well on the way to being completed, and the lucky women who were first on the new lottery list were there ready and waiting when the doors were unlocked. Not just two this time, but eight women were first in receipt of the magic message, and had been allowed to choose which of the options they would like. A year almost to the day after Hannah had returned from Earth with three mysterious locked cases and a whole heap of data, Orbital 4 was ready to offer its women sexual pleasure with a variety of androids, from different historical eras, genres, personality types, even three different ethnicities.

And best of all, they could be enjoyed in a completely guilt-free way, because the new _Companions_ that staffed this establishment were programmed for the task: there was no inconvenient attachment to any one woman, just a willingness to please and offer whatever love and affection was needed by the client. The rooms were comfortably furnished, with soft lighting, food and drink on tap, music playing if wished… And soundproofing. All the lessons of the previous twelve months had been absorbed and integrated into the design and running of the place.

A receptionist was waiting inside, and she calmly and discreetly guided the women to the correct doors, behind which waited willing partners, ready to entertain and amuse for the next twenty-four hours (it was already decided that once everyone on the waiting list had taken their turn and a new lottery draw initiated the time allowance would be increased). Each of the _Companions_ had his own room, decorated in suitable style. For example, Idris had a stylish ‘bachelor pad’, Sir Thomas had a gloomy and mysterious Victorian room, Captain Nicholls had an Edwardian boudoir, and Adam had a dark, cluttered space filled almost entirely by a curtained four-poster bed.

Claire was watching on her monitor as the first eight women entered. The view she had was from the public concourse. There were no cameras inside _Companionship,_ only microphones connected to an automated monitoring system, which alerted Security if certain keywords or sounds of alarm were detected. Up until now there had not been a single incident on O4 or any of the other colonies with the _Companions,_ but nobody wanted to get complacent, despite their fundamental programming which was designed to prevent any possible harm to humans. The androids were immensely powerful and given their ability to learn and thus change, it was wise to remain vigilant.

The Commander smiled in satisfaction as she saw the women step inside. Things were going extremely well, and she was actively considering retirement, feeling she could hand over the reins now. Income had increased ten-fold, enabling Orbital 4 to keep these eight androids and share them communally, free of charge. The external order book was full, with probably enough demand to keep the manufacturing division busy for at least ten years, and with new models coming online all the time, that was likely to increase. A few wealthy women on Mars and the Moon had already commissioned their own, individual _Companions,_ custom-made and with the original ‘imprinting’ logarithms restored.

And best of all from her own, ethical point of view, she had been able to release Loki and Oakley from their obligations to the community. Henry too, not that he had ever complied, but now there was no need to continue to demand that they go against part of their fundamental programming and provide service to the many. They were allowed to choose the women they wanted to be with, and to stay with them all the time. Claire felt a twinge of jealousy – more than a twinge if she was honest. Those few stolen hours she had spent with Oakley (and she knew they were not hers to take, had done all along) were the most magical of her life until then. The terrible guilt she had suffered ever since, not least whenever she had to face Amanda, meant that she had never entered the lottery for a slot with the original two, nor had she done so now there was more choice and less of a queue. No, her golden moment had come and gone.

Or so she thought.

*****

Oakley was fidgeting. Amanda gritted her teeth and turned to face him on the chair behind hers, forcing a smile. He had been pacing around her office all morning, and now, after she had asked him politely to sit down, the noise of his feet tapping on the floor was driving her to distraction.

“Look, Oaks, why don’t you go back to our place? You can’t really help me here and I can see you are bored.”

He looked chastened. Not for the first time, she marvelled his complexity and had to remind herself he was not a real teenage boy. “I’m sorry, darling. I will stop.” And with that, he changed: he sat, serenely still and quiet, as if he were suddenly a different person. _Not that he’s a person at all. He’s a machine._

If you had asked the supremely independent Amanda of a year earlier how she would like to have a live-in male lover, she would have laughed you out of the room. She had no such need, no such desire. But that was before she locked eyes with the unbearably sexy and fun-loving Thomas Oakley. Now he was the centre of her world, and the affection they shared, not to mention the bed, had transformed both her day-to-day existence and her self-image. She turned back to her screen, smiling to herself and got back to work.

Women in the post-apocalyptic world had learned quickly to manage without men. There had been nothing they couldn’t do before without male assistance, _with one notable exception_ , and science had already overcome that shortfall with gene manipulation and embryo implantation. Society was settled, there were no conflicts beyond the normal, minor, interpersonal ones. Resources were limited, but trade was fair and there were no major instances of greed or exploitation. Even the discovery of the _Companions_ hadn’t been used to excessive advantage; it would have been impossible to make the new androids without input from the other colonies, and all parties had agreed the price paid for the finished articles as fair. There was a general acceptance that the discoverer/recoverer of lost tech was entitled to make a modest profit from their finds.

Sociologists, psychologists and philosophers had been debating and still discussed the effects of the introduction of ‘men’ on this hard-won equilibrium. After the initial unrest, as soon as it became clear that this wonderful and exciting new resource would be shared fairly, things settled down. And the deeply felt and totally understandable concern that many women on Orbital 4 expressed about the coercion involved when Loki and Oakley were ‘shared’ had spurred the manufacturing working group to speed up the development of new versions more suited to the current situation.

Naturally, for three women on Orbital 4, the arrival of the _Companions_ was more than a social revolution. For Cate and Hannah, like Amanda, it was life changing. It brought them love and companionship of an undreamt-of kind, and while they did not remain unique in that for long, each now had a deep and special relationship that would endure through the rest of their lives.

*****

Cate was floating. She was also shouting, but she was not aware of that. Only when Henry paused in his ministrations to look up her body sternly did she realise that she had been allowing a stream of profanity to leave her lips.

“Sorry, Harry.”

“Not at all, my darling. It is most… _gratifying_ to see you lose control in such a way.” His expression remained solemn, but experience had taught her that he was smiling inside. Without delay, the regal tongue returned to its task and her moans again became shouts. When he deemed that his queen could endure no more, Henry slid up her body and into her welcoming warmth. Cate clung to him, her lips drawing patterns on his chest and shoulders as he undulated against her. She looked down at their bodies: his pale, freckled skin against her olive-toned flesh; his strong muscular shape beside her softer, feminine curves.

“Henry?”

He paused, his breath coming in gusts, as he seemed to fight for control. “Yes, my lady?”

She looked into his blue eyes, took in the arch of his eyebrows. He was so very beautiful, and it struck her that she had no idea if what she wanted was possible. Then his hips jerked, almost imperceptibly, and all other thoughts evaporated in the face of her overwhelming need. Some time later, as she lay against his chest and nuzzled him, she felt as much as heard him speak.

“What was it you were about to ask me earlier, my darling Cate?”

“Well…” She sat up a little, leaning on her elbow, her long chocolate brown hair swinging and shimmering in the half-light of their bedroom. “I’ve been thinking, Henry. Before I met you, I wasn’t like some women… “ She began to babble. “I mean, I never wanted to… to have a baby, any of that stuff…but now… I mean… If we could make her like both of us, in appearance I mean…would you? Could we?” Her face was uncertain. The idea was unformed; it was purely emotional, without rational consideration, but totally consuming her.

Henry reached up with his arm and took hold of the back of her head, pulling her gently to his lips. He kissed her sweetly, steadily until she melted back into his embrace.

“If that is what you desire, my queen, then it is my dearest wish also.”

*****

The tap at the door was firm and rapid. Claire was puzzled – she rarely had callers after hours.

“Yes?”

“Commander? It’s Charlotte. I have some others with me. Can we come in?”

“Of course.”

The door slid open and suddenly her sitting room was full of women. As well as her old PA, there were the Heads of Security, Science and the Medical Centre. Behind them, standing shyly by the wall were Hannah, Cate and Amanda.

“Well, this is an unexpected pleasure! Can I get you ladies anything? Coffee, wine…?”

Charlotte, who was leading the group, declined the offer. “No thanks, Claire. Look, we won’t mess around. We’re here with a gift for you.”

“A gift?”

“Well, not really a _gift,_ more of a pension, payment, a deserved reward for all your hard work.”

Claire stood up and folded her arms impatiently. “What are you talking about, Charlotte?” She had no time for such silliness and was about to ask them to leave when the women parted and she saw a tall shape silhouetted in her doorway. “Who is that?” She knew even before she had finished speaking. She recognised his slicked-back hairstyle and that jaunty cravat: it was Freddie Page. She looked to Charlotte, who was grinning.

“He just left his box, Claire. Your face is the first… and he has the algorithm.”

Freddie stepped into the room, ignoring the women either side of him and walked up to Claire, taking her hand and kissing the back of it lightly. “You really are the most attractive lady. Claire, is it?” His eyebrows were arched questioningly, and he looked so cute that the Commander of Orbital 4, despite her sixty-five years of life and fifteen years of command, was left utterly speechless. She nodded mutely as the young man in the baggy trousers caressed her arm and leaned in to kiss her cheek.

Finally, the power of speech returned…after a fashion. “Char… how?...why?”

“He’s yours,” Charlotte whispered. “We know what you sacrificed, and we all thought that you deserved him. He’s naughty, full of fun and desperate to live every moment. And he’s totally irresponsible.” Claire looked at her sceptically. Charlotte looked back steadily. “ _Just. What. You. Need_.”

While they were speaking, the others had quietly slipped out, and now Charlotte turned to leave as well. “Enjoy, Claire.”

A chocolaty voice brought her out of her confusion. “Which way is your bedroom, darling?”

*****

“See if you can find the same landing place as last time, will you, Cal?”

The OS asserted it would and Hannah’s ship circled the dark lake once before settling down on its legs. She left her seat and moved to the suiting chamber. Before she left the cockpit she turned. “You coming, Loki?”

His pale face broke into a grin. “Of course, my darling. I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” He paused as he rose from his chair, a wicked look in his eye. “Well, _almost_ anything.”

A few minutes later they were walking along the edge of the water towards the place Hannah had found him and his fellow _Companions_. They were both wearing protective suits, although Loki, since he did not really breathe, was not using the respirator. However, because the air was still quite corrosive, and as he had not had time to adjust to the changes as William had, Janet had recommended that he did not expose his skin to the Earth’s atmosphere. Hannah stole glimpses at his face as they neared what had been Chantal’s house. He was staring at it, and around at the landscape, clearly trying to reconcile its current appearance with his memories. At one point, he walked to the water’s edge and crouched down. He seemed to consider touching the lake, then thought better of it. Hannah held her breath: it was not clear if the water was, in fact, _water_ at all, anymore. It could have been acid, given all the upheavals the chemistry of the planet had suffered.

“The time I spent here was happy.” His voice came suddenly in her helmet, making her start a little. She looked up at him, now standing beside her. “But nothing compared to the last few weeks, my darling Hannah.”

She smiled and threaded her arm through his, if a little clumsily thanks to the heavy suits. She had brought him with her because she wanted to see the place again, and she thought he would like that too. She was not planning any further trips to the surface after this. Her position in the colony had changed, and her main employment now was in research, both of tech and data for the manufacturing operation. But she felt she needed to bid farewell and visit this particular spot one last time.

“When I found the pods, I was so excited, Loki. I thought that at last I was bringing something of real value back to Orbital 4. I had no idea just how valuable to me it would be.” She squeezed his arm through the layers, and he squeezed back.

“Shall we return home, my darling? I have plans for us.”

“Oh yes?” Hannah credulity was faked; she knew exactly what he had in mind.

“Oh yes. I am going to have you, my darling. In the bed, on the bed, on the floor, on the chairs, on the counter in the kitchen. And you are going to scream my name and everyone in the colony will know that I am making you come.”

Hannah struggled to keep upright. Gulping, she turned to him. He was grinning through the glass of his visor, eyes twinkling with mischief once more. They turned and walked back to where her ship was waiting. When she stumbled in her hurry, Loki scooped her up and carried her the rest of the way at a run. In fact, he did not wait for the bed, or the floor, or the kitchen counter. He took her there, in the cockpit of her ship as it took off from the scorched surface of the Earth. By the time they were docking with Orbital 4 they were dressed again and Hannah was able to wave to Miriam as they passed the windows of the Med Centre. She looked up at the Commander’s office, hoping for a glimpse of Claire, but the lights were off.

Loki’s arms tightened around her waist as they stood waiting for the airlock to equalise, and he nuzzled her hair. She leaned back against him. She felt more joy than she could ever have imagined.

“I love you, Loki.”

“And I love you too, my darling Hannah. Shall we go home?”


End file.
